From this study, it was concluded that the hazardous emissions that are connected to photovoltaic technology are only connected the consumption of energy in the manufacturing process. In 2010, a research project was funded by the Clean Energy Fund. This project only focused on understanding the effects of photovoltaic to the environment. According to this research, photovoltaic energy is in a perfect position to be included in low carbon energy technologies to sustain future energy. The study also concluded that the amount produced was too low to pose adverse effect to the environment.
Solar energy may define as the energy received by the earth from the sun. This solar energy is in the form of solar radiation. With the help of solar cells, solar radiation can convert into electricity. Sun is a highly powerful energy source, humans and natures are directly depending on the sun. For example in hydro-electricity the solar energy needed for the evaporation of water after that it returns to earth as rain and provides water in dams. In biomass, the solar energy used that process. Solar cells directly converted solar radiation into electricity, during the process time there is no noise or pollution are there. These cells made with some semiconducting materials. If use solar cells in our home it will help to reduce the greenhouse gas emission, minimise the percentage of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and mainly reduce the necessity of fossil fuels and natural gas use to produce electricity. According to the Ben Sorensen, solar energy is one of a good source of substitute energy, for the reason that it is renewable, economical and does not pollute our environment. Thus, this essay will be divided into three parts. Firstly, we will talk about fossil fuels and its demerits. Secondly, we will look at the issues and implications of solar energy. Finally, we will focus on the advantageous and disadvantageous of solar energy respectively.
The sun is the source of all life on Earth. In just one hour the sunlight hitting the earth’s surface provides enough energy to power the global economy for a full year (Brown, 2015). The sun will continue to burn for billions of years, making it an unquestionably reliable source for renewable energy. Modern-day photovoltaic (PV) solar cells rely on the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon where light is used to free electrons from a solid surface - usually silicon - to create electricity. PV panels are typically installed on homes and buildings, or in ground arrangements, sometimes called solar farms.
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 cell or photovoltaic (PV) systems usually transformed energy from the sun in to electric current. It can be measured in terms of ‘‘conversion efficiency’’, the proportion of solar energy transformed to electricity. (Henderson, Conkling, & Roberts, 2007) Sunpower primarily focused on the production of solar cell. But by moving in to wafer manufacturing it soon incorporated in to manufacturing of solar power module units. In general Sunpower manufacturing process needed approximately two times as many steps as the usual solar manufacturing process need and many of these steps were distinctive to Sunpower. Sunpower has nearly 15 -20 established cell manufactures, a handful of silicon – based cell manufacturing upstarts and a number of thin film solar companies offering potentially unsettling technologies.
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.
Electrical power is generated by use of photovoltaics by converting sunlight into direct current and this is achieved by making use of materials that are semiconducting and have the properties of photovoltaic effect. Solar panels that have got several number of solar cells are used for photovoltaic systems. Solar photovoltaic energy is considered as a sustainable and cleaner form of power and has an advantage of making use of a renewable source which is the sun. The process of obtaining electricity from the sun has the advantage of having no movement of objects and no environmental emissions, a very clear and known study since for fifty years photovoltaic systems have been in use specialized applications and also for more than twenty years grid connected systems have been put into us (Armentrout and Patricia Armentrout).
Near infrared (NIR) light has attracted much attention owing to its widespread applications in energy conversion, (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 1–3 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) sensing, (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 4 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) and bio-therapy. (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) 5–7 (-- removed HTML --) (-- removed HTML --) In particular, to solve the energy problem all over the world, efficient utilization of natural energy is strongly required. Si solar cells (SCs) are the most widespread energy conversion devices used to harvest solar energy. However, Si SCs do not respond to NIR light of over 1200 nm in wavelength in the solar spectrum owing to their
As world population continues to rise and economic development drives energy consumption upward, the necessity of energy diversification will intensify. Obvious concerns for fossil fuels, such as their inherent finitude and the pollution costs, only further accentuate the need for adoption of non-fossil fuel energy sources. In the renewable energy market solar energy is an increasingly popular option. Over the past 15 years, falling prices and increasing efficiency have resulted in a 20% increase in solar energy production; furthermore, as the Sun provides enough radiant energy to Earth each day to power society for year, the potential for solar development is markedly high but requires substantial development (National Geographic 2014). Solar energy production often takes two general forms: for residential power production, the photo-voltaic cell panel (hereafter PV) is the dominant mode; for commercial production, solar energy is converted to thermal energy and harnessed via turbine. Regardless of implementation, the primary obstacles of solar energy adoption are geographic space and high costs; otherwise, solar energy is a remarkably adaptable technology that can be deployed nearly worldwide despite differences in climate (National Geographic 2014). For the purposes of this research report, the focus will revolve around PV
Bob Johnstone, author of Switching to Solar, proclaims that every day the sun produces 970 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy (Johnson 11). Volker Quaschning – writer of Understanding Renewable Energy Systems – puts this fact in perspective by explaining how the world only uses one ten-thousandth of that quantity to power itself (Quaschning 22). This means that if humanity can find a way to harness even a fraction of the sun’s energy, the world will no longer need fossil fuels or other harmful energy sources. There are, of course, many ways to translate the sun’s power into electricity, but one stands out. After analyzing the benefits and possible downfalls, it is clear that solar technology holds incredible potential. Not only is it pure
Chrobak, Pavel, et al. "Photovoltaics and its potential application in the production of electricity." Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings, 2015, p. 1032+. Academic OneFile,
I am researching solar panels in order to find out how solar energy works and how it will affect the future to help the world have a more efficient energy source. Solar panels have impacted the world dramatically. The cost of solar panels is cheaper than any other energy source. People in some states are even saving up to $150 per month by switching from gas energy to solar energy. The future of solar panels is increasing everyday with new upgrades and new materials being used. There has been some controversy about if solar panels will really help you in the long run, but after a certain amount of time you will pay back the cost of installation and end up saving money.
In todays economic state, our reliance on sustainable resources is paramount. With more than 7 billion people feeding off of the planets resources, we must create and innovate different technologies and methods to effectively use Earth’s natural resources without creating a carbon footprint. One of the greatest issues of our time surrounds the environmental impact humans are having on our planet and the major consequences in which we must deal with in order to save the planet. One technique that this paper will focus on is the use of solar panels to convert light energy from the sun into electrical energy.
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.