Solar Energy : The Alternative Energy Sources

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.

The increase in oil prices, the depletion of fossil fuel, and increase in consumption of energy has led to finding an alternate source of electricity generation through sustainable energy resources. The sun was humankind's first source of power, and with a little effort to make it more efficient, it may be the only source of energy we may need for the future. Among various sustainable sources, solar energy is the fastest growing,

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

We chose renewable energy, and solar energy for specific with our simple and naive thought of its potential in future and global scale influence. Having no contact with any professional in the field researching at Vietnam, we started like every teenager, with Google and Wikipedia. I wanted to do a research because I was bored with the traditional class. As I anticipated, the experience contradictory to the class. Start reading about solar cell was like entering a forest I’d never been in before. Books and scientific papers about it were the trees and soil, they all looked the same to a newcomer like me. At first, I felt lost and frustrated. But after getting used to it, I wandered. Sometimes, I picked up a rock, played with it, tried to throw it. I knelt down and examine the soil. I climbed the trees and learned the differences between them. I read and learned not because I needed to prepare for a test or exam as I did for the last eleven years before. I learned because I wanted to make something of my own, to try new thing and see how it turned out. Finally, when the forest felt like home, I started producing ideas. There were bad ideas, which can be theoretically eliminated. Some ideas I thought good, but later found out somebody had done it. And then came the idea I proud the most. I borrowed a material, Phycobiliprotein, and the mechanism from the master of using light energy, nature, to

When light hits the solar cell, the energy frees the electron/hole pairs. Each photon will free one electron and create one hole. When this happens close to the electron field or if a hole and an electron wander into the field’s range of

Solar cells operate by the photoelectric effect, in which incoming sunlight excites electrons within a semiconducting material like silicon to higher energy level, leading to the movement of free electrons, which eventually pass into an external circuit to maintain a flow of electricity (www.larouchepac.com).

Photovoltaic systems use solar cells in the generation of electricity through conversion of solar optical energy into electrical energy directly. Solar cells are made out of semi-conductor materials such that they produce electricity when solar radiation is incident on them (Armentrout and Patricia Armentrout).

A common concern about solar panels is their reliability and durability. Fortunately, these have both been addressed in the scientific community and simple solutions exist to help solar cells produce a steady flow for a longer time. At night or during a cloudy day, solar panels cannot produce electricity, however, this is provided for by including a lead-acid battery in the solar panel’s structure. It allows for energy to be stored and later used at times of low electricity output (Quaschning 158). As for durability, Bob Johnstone says that a twenty-year guarantee is now normal for solar cell companies; SunPower even declares that its panels will last for forty years (Johnstone 336; SunPower).

Solar energy explained straightforwardly is a method of which the suns’ rays are collected with panels, therefore harvesting solar energy and converting it into electricity.These panels work by implementing solar cells that these devices turn into energy protons. A. E. Becquerel was the first physicist to examine the “photovoltaic effect” in which light photons stimulate electrons to create an electric current. (SE) Solar panels are large black rectangular squares, which can be placed on the roof of most structures and occupy a minimal amount of space. The ramifications are reduced cost of

As such, the photovoltaic reaction of single-intersection cells is constrained to the share of the sun 's range whose vitality is over the band hole of the retaining material, and lower energy photons are not utilized.

In the past decades, there has been an important argument regarding energy and its sources. Energy resources are classified into two groups: renewable and non-renewable. Although renewable sources have not yet been exploited to their maximum, their use has been increasing since the 1960’s. The main renewable energy sources are Wind, Geothermal, and Solar energy. Contrary to renewable sources, non-renewable sources lead in the production of electricity and other forms of energy. For non-renewable sources, Fossil fuel and Coal are the main producers of energy in many parts of the world, followed by the Nuclear energy that has increased in its used and production in the past decades. Solar and nuclear energy are possible suitors in the task

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.

Green technology is most utilized today in the quest for alternative energy. Solar energy, wind turbines, and using the oceans energy are in the lead for making a softer imprint on the planets environment and its resources. Solar panels use the heat from the sun to convert into useable electricity. That energy can either be stored in batteries or returned to the local energy provider if still connected to them. The idea of this is to utilize the local grid as a bank to receive credit for the energy you provide and pull it out when needed with little to no charge. The panels that provide this are fast becoming more cost effective, easier to handle, and readily available to the average consumer. Robbins (2009) demonstrates an example of these promising ‘thin film’ solar cells as seen in Figure 2 of this paper.

Solar cells are also known as photovoltaic cells, which suggest that light energy is being converted to electrical energy. Most photovoltaic cells consist of silicon in its crystalline structure. In that structure, each silicon atom has four valence electrons, and each one bonds to an adjacent electron. Silicon then is a poor conductor since electrons cannot move freely through the substance, but the addition of impurities such as phosphorus, which is called doping, to the silicon crystalline structure provide extra electrons called free carriers that can be knocked off the atom via light energy.6 The section of the photovoltaic cell that is doped with phosphorus is called the N-type because it has numerous negatively charged electrons flowing and creating a current. On the other hand, the section of the photovoltaic cell that is doped with boron is called the P-type because boron only has three valence electrons.7 When the N-type and