The Sun was humankind’s first source of power, and with a little effort from our side, we can start understanding how does solar energy work and how can we turn this renewable resource into a source of free and clean energy for mankind.
Solar energy is so abundant on the planet today, that only a part of the famous Sahara Desert, can absorb in only six hours of sunlight, more solar energy than the entire world uses in a year.
If we use a large solar PV panel with a surface of about 1.5 square meters to collect solar energy over a whole year, it would produce about 500 kW (kilowatt) of clean electricity each year.
All the power that we use today on the planet was originally produced by the Sun.
Even the fossil fuels used today for conventional energy production (which are polluting the atmosphere), represent the fossilized remains of plants and animals that died a very long time ago (millions of years ago) and were buried in the earth to produce the today’s deposits of coal, oil and gas.
Another source of power (low-carbon energy source) available today that is also fossil is represented by nuclear power using nuclear fuels such as uranium an plutonium in the nuclear fission reaction.
Geothermal energy is produced by the internal heat of the planet, while hydroelectric power and tidal power are produced by the combined gravitational forces of our planet, the Moon and the Sun.
Biomass drawn its energy from the Sun (through the photosynthesis process), and when we burn the wood and plant waste, that energy is released to produce heat and steam, which is then used to produce electricity.
Wind power is also produced by the Sun because our star heats the different layers of the atmosphere in an uneven way, which creates the wind.
To understand how does solar energy work, we have to learn first, how we use the power of the Sun today?
How we use the power of the Sun today?
For electricity generation we mostly used photovoltaic solar panels or large mirrors that concentrate the sunlight into a central point located at the top of a tower where an agent (molten salt) is heated at very high temperatures to produce steam and spin a generator that produces electricity (solar thermal energy).
Another type of solar technology uses concave mirrors to concentrate the sunlight into the focal point of the mirror where a pipe containing a type of oil or another agent (CSP) is used as a heating source for tap water or for residential heating.
It is true that we already discovered the photovoltaic effect about two centuries ago (in 1839, a very young scientist named Edmund Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect), but we started to use solar PV (photovoltaic) panels on a large scale only a couple of decades ago.
CHINT New energy devices were created for mass production and storage of solar power, mostly for small and medium solar power plants.
The most efficient solar cells available today are used in the space by the ISS (the International Space Station) and other space missions.
How Are Solar Panels Made?
A traditional solar panel uses a layer of N-type silicon sandwiched on top of a layer of P-type silicon and then connected by a conductor, which we call a wire.
Depending on the size of the panel (the number of solar cells contained) and the type of the PV cells used (monocrystalline or polycrystalline solar cells), it can be used to power smaller or larger devices.
To power an entire house, you need a small power plant installed on your roof (if the roof is eligible for solar power production).
The small solar power plant will consists of a number of solar panels connected to an inverter, a charger and from there to batteries (off-grid solar PV system) or the powerwall of your house (on grid solar PV system).
Using the power provided by the grid is not very efficient because some of the power sent from the power stations through power lines to the end user (you) is lost in the process, so why we don’t build our own solar power plant at home (which is cleaner compared to traditional power plants burning fossil fuels)?
How We Can Turn Solar Power into a Major Source of Energy on the Planet?
Giving the fact that the environment is very affected by the human activity on the planet that generates air, water and soil pollution, we have to find alternative sources of energy such as solar power, to replace the limited and dirty fossil fuels.
To make solar a major source of power on the planet we only have to increase the generation capacity for solar energy (more solar power plants installed in the sunniest areas the planet).
Solar energy also knows a major development in the residential areas of the U.S. because homeowners have realized that installing solar panels on the roof of their home or in the yard can help them pay less on utility bills.
This way, with a little help from the local and federal governments, tens of thousands of new solar PV systems are installed in the country every year.
How To Make Solar Energy More Popular?
Solar along with the other renewables still has a very small impact in the energy mix of the plant mostly because despite governmental subsidies, the technology is still very expensive and the efficiency pretty reduced.
Giving the fact that some of the best solar PV panels available to the public today (using monocrystalline solar cells) have an average efficiency of about 20 percent, it means that 80 percent of the energy sent by the Sun is lost.
Beside having such a small efficiency, solar panels are also pretty expensive, so they are not available for families with low income. To make solar energy available to anyone we have to change the materials used to produce these panels (silicon is quite expensive, so it needs to be replaced).
The storage capacity for solar energy also needs to be increased, and we need a new battery technology to make batteries capable of storing more power for very long periods of time.
Once we make solar energy more affordable and we manage to improve the battery technology used to store the energy produced by the panels, solar power will suddenly become more interesting for a very large number of people, and this will produce a significant impact in the energy mix of the entire planet.
Conclusion
Solar energy certainly represents a major source of power for humanity in the future, so if you manage to install a solar PV system on the roof of your home you have become a greener person.
By producing your own power which is clean and unlimited, you can say that you already managed to transport yourself in the future where renewable energy will flood the energy mix of all the countries, and fossil fuels will only remain a sad part of the history.
