Photovoltaic And Solar Thermal Systems

Solar energy can be turned into electricity through solar cells 15%=cheap, 40% efficiency=expensive. Caloric theory of heat=caloric fluid flows from hot object to cold. Heat engine=

Solar energy can save us. Solar energy can reduce pollution by burning fuels in extoridant

The greatest energy that can be produced by the sun is electricity. Photovoltaics, or solar cells, capture the sun and convert it into electricity. Solar cells were discovered by the Europeans back in the 1870’s when they used selenium to develop the telegraph. They found that when light hits selenium it would produce and electrical current. Soon enough there were many scientists and engineers working on photovoltaic systems. Silicon and Selenium proved to be the two best elements to conduct electricity when light hits them. Photovoltaic systems (PV cell) work by converting the suns light into electricity. A semi conducting material absorbs the sunlight, that energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, this allows the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. The further development of solar cells can be attributed to the satellite industry. Solar cells were expensive and there was no use for them until satellites came. Because it is impractical to tether satellites it became important to develop solar energy at any cost that would power these satellites. This created a sustainable market for solar power, the first of its kind.

Fossil Fuels are a great alternative but the technology is still relatively expensive and can be very dangerous to the natural environment. The ability to power more homes from the direct sunlight coming from

2-Solar Energy: the use of receptors solar panels pick up solar radiation for turning solar energy to electric power

Solar energy begins with the sun. Solar panels, also known as photovoltaics, are used to convert light from the sun, which is composed of particles of energy called "photons", into electricity that can be used to power electrical loads. Light from the sun is a renewable energy resource that provides clean energy, produced by solar panels.

Although there is a common misconception that fossil fuels will cause pollution, mankind should rely on fossil fuels for energy not only because they are cheap and plentiful, but also because alternative energy is very unreliable.

The sun is a massive burning ball of hydrogen that outputs gigantic quantities of energy every second. Sunlight is an excellent energy source and the future of using solar power is very exciting. The Sun's energy can be used to heat and cool buildings, generate electricity, operate communication, and GPS systems and even power solar cars. The sun’s energy is clean and solar panels used to harness the energy are low maintenance.

Solar energy is energy that is collected from the sun that is then turned into electricity. The most common medium for using solar power is the use of solar panels. Through the use of solar panels people can use that harnessed electricity to power their houses, household appliances, their cars, even their towns and cities.

This is one of the strongest reasons to embrace solar technology. There is no denying that our dependency of fossil fuels is having a drastic negative impact on our environment. If we do not embrace some sort of change, future generations will suffer for our failure to come up with a valid solution.

There are two main forms of solar power: The use of photovoltaic, or PV, cells, and the use of thermal energy from the sun. Photovoltaic cells exploit the photoelectric effect, which converts the protons from the light of the sun into electrons, which can be converted into energy. Photovoltaic energy accounts for fifteen gigawatts of global energy, which is equivalent to fifteen large electric power plants. Also, the production of PV cells has increased by two thousand times over the past twenty years, and it is expected to continue to grow. Solar-thermal energy takes the thermal energy created by the sun and turns it into electricity. Although it only only produces as much energy as one large power plant, solar-thermal energy has many domestic uses. It can not only be used for electricity, but also for solar heating, which uses sunlight to heat up houses. Solar power has already proven to be a reliant source of energy, and it will only continue to improve in technology and

Commonly, renewable energy is defined as energy which is able to be captured from existing natural resources that are replenished rapidly, such as flowing water, sunshine, wind, geothermal heat flows and ocean [2]. Renewable energy technologies are required to provide technologies to use one or several renewable energy resources. There are some different types of renewable energy technologies, which include solar energy, bioenergy, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy and tidal energy. This thesis project will focus on the solar photovoltaic which is currently one of types of solar energy technologies, and this technology using photovoltaic cells to converts sunlight directly into electricity.Solar photovoltaic system can generate electricity from sunlight through using PV modules, and the system can be integrated into building designs, installed on rooftops, or large scale power plant. With the development of photovoltaic technologies, solar photovoltaic capacity has been increased from 3.7 GW (2004) to 177GW (2014) [3]. Figure 2 shows this change from 2004 to 2014, there is a big trend of increase in these years. The increase of PV capacity can reduce the carbon emission and provides more job opportunities. It also helps to reduce air pollution and make a friendly environment for living. One of the common PV system is

Solar Thermal Power systems, also known as Concentrating Solar Power systems, use concentrated solar radiation as a high temperature energy source to produce electricity using thermal route. Since the average operating temperature of stationary non-concentrating collectors is low (max up to 1200C) as compared to the desirable input temperatures of heat engines (above 3000C), the concentrating collectors are used for such applications. These technologies are appropriate for applications where direct solar radiation is high. The mechanism of conversion of solar to electricity is fundamentally similar to the traditional

In the past four decades, there have been numerous strides made in the photovoltaic enagy field which has seen has seen the emergence of PV as a viable source of renewable energy. One significant development is the progressive reduction in the unit cost of photovoltaic cells made from silicon. For instance, an analysis of the cost in dollars per watt of Crystalline Silicon from 1977 indicates that the cost has been declining steadily. In 1977, the cost in dollars per watt ($IW) over $76, in the year 2000, it stood at $5 and surprisingly, in 2015 it was at a low of $0.30 (Kalkman et al, 2015). Due to the decline in cost per unit watt, photovoltaic energy production has reached grid-parity in 40 countries of thereabout. In it projected that by the end of this year, it would have attained grid-parity in more than half of the countries of the world (Balfour Shaw, 2011).

Abstract: The current energy situation with fossil fuels as the main source of the world’s energy has two main flaws: fossil fuels contribute to global warming via the greenhouse effect and they are limited in the quantity that remains. Solar power solves both of these problems and can be captured by utilizing photovoltaic cells. However, photovoltaic cells have their own drawbacks due to their high costs of installation and maintenance.