Saving Money On Your Residential Utilities By Using Solar Energy
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When you want to save money on your residential utility bill, it can be rather difficult at times. That is when you should know that residential solar power could easily be the solution that you are looking for. The reasons that this is the best solution for you is it uses the suns power, the cost of installing these can be low if built yourself, the amount of energy you can get is typically enough to power your home, and you could start to have some extra money in your pocket book each month.
Using the suns power means that you will not be adding any pollution into the environment. However, you will also be using a resource that is free for you to use. Then you will not have to worry about paying for the increases that are typical in most of the electric bills that are coming in on a regular basis. You will need to ensure that you do the proper maintenance on these to guarantee that you keep your power supply up, but even then that is lower than paying the electric bill.
What is Solar Energy?
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Solar energy is transmitted to the earth in portions of energy called photons, which interact with the earth’s atmosphere and surface. It takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the sun’s energy to reach the earth – this solar energy comes from within the sun itself.
The sun is one big ball of gasses – mostly helium and hydrogen. When the hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, it generates energy. This process is called nuclear fusion. The sun radiates an enormous amount of energy every day, more than what people can use.
Solar energy is captured and stored in Photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic comes from the words Photo, meaning light and Volt, meaning electricity. Photovoltaic cells are called PV cells or solar cells for short. Solar electric cells are made up of something called silicon. These cells have positive layers and negative layers, when charged with the sun an electric field are form between the positive and negative layers.
Solar energy is transmitted to the earth in portions of energy called photons, which interact with the earth’s atmosphere and surface. It takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the sun’s energy to reach the earth – this solar energy comes from within the sun itself.
The sun is one big ball of gasses – mostly helium and hydrogen. When the hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, it generates energy. This process is called nuclear fusion. The sun radiates an enormous amount of energy every day, more than what people can use.
Solar energy is captured and stored in Photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic comes from the words Photo, meaning light and Volt, meaning electricity. Photovoltaic cells are called PV cells or solar cells for short. Solar electric cells are made up of something called silicon. These cells have positive layers and negative layers, when charged with the sun an electric field are form between the positive and negative layers.
Solar Energy
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Solar energy:
Solar technologies use the sun’s energy to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry. Despite sunlight’s significant potential for supplying energy, solar power provides less than 1% of U.S. energy needs. This percentage is expected to increase with the development of new and more efficient solar technologies.
Different types of solar collectors are used to meet different energy needs. Passive solar building designs capture the sun’s heat to provide space heating and light. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly to electricity. Concentrating solar power systems focus sunlight with mirrors to create a high-intensity heat source, which then produces steam or mechanical power to run a generator that creates electricity. Flat-plate collectors absorb the sun’s heat directly into water or other fluids to provide hot water or space heating. And solar process heating and cooling systems use specialized solar collectors and chemical processes to meet large-scale hot water and heating and cooling needs.
Solar technologies produce few negative environmental impacts during collector operation. However, there are environmental concerns associated with the production of collectors and storage devices. In addition, cost is a great drawback to solar power. Although sunlight is free, solar cells and the equipment needed to convert their direct-current output to alternating current for use in a house is expensive. Electricity generated by solar cells is still more than twice as expensive as electricity from fossil fuels. Part of the problem with cost is that solar cells can only operate during daylight hours. In contrast, a coal or natural gas plant can run around the clock, which means the cost for building the plant can be spread over many more hours of use.
Around the United States, available sunlight varies considerably as a result of differences in cloud cover and latitude, and also varies with the seasons. In the summer, longer daylight hours and a higher sun angle provide more solar power, compared to the winter when the sun is up for fewer hours and at a lower position in the sky. These variations must be taken into consideration when planning solar collection facilities.
Solar energy:
Solar technologies use the sun’s energy to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry. Despite sunlight’s significant potential for supplying energy, solar power provides less than 1% of U.S. energy needs. This percentage is expected to increase with the development of new and more efficient solar technologies.
Different types of solar collectors are used to meet different energy needs. Passive solar building designs capture the sun’s heat to provide space heating and light. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly to electricity. Concentrating solar power systems focus sunlight with mirrors to create a high-intensity heat source, which then produces steam or mechanical power to run a generator that creates electricity. Flat-plate collectors absorb the sun’s heat directly into water or other fluids to provide hot water or space heating. And solar process heating and cooling systems use specialized solar collectors and chemical processes to meet large-scale hot water and heating and cooling needs.
Solar technologies produce few negative environmental impacts during collector operation. However, there are environmental concerns associated with the production of collectors and storage devices. In addition, cost is a great drawback to solar power. Although sunlight is free, solar cells and the equipment needed to convert their direct-current output to alternating current for use in a house is expensive. Electricity generated by solar cells is still more than twice as expensive as electricity from fossil fuels. Part of the problem with cost is that solar cells can only operate during daylight hours. In contrast, a coal or natural gas plant can run around the clock, which means the cost for building the plant can be spread over many more hours of use.
Around the United States, available sunlight varies considerably as a result of differences in cloud cover and latitude, and also varies with the seasons. In the summer, longer daylight hours and a higher sun angle provide more solar power, compared to the winter when the sun is up for fewer hours and at a lower position in the sky. These variations must be taken into consideration when planning solar collection facilities.
Solar Energy And Its Use
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We’ve used the Sun for drying clothes and food for thousands of years, but only recently have we been able to use it for generating power. The Sun is 150 million kilometres away, and amazingly powerful. Just the tiny fraction of the Sun’s energy that hits the Earth (around a hundredth of a millionth of a percent) is enough to meet all our power needs many times over.
In fact, every minute, enough energy arrives at the Earth to meet our demands for a whole year – if only we could harness it correctly.Solar energy technologies use the sun’s energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry.There are a variety of technologies that have been developed to take advantage of solar energy. These include:
Photovoltaic (solar cell) Systems
Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. Solar cells are often used to power calculators and watches. They are made of semiconducting materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect.
Solar cells are typically combined into modules that hold about 40 cells; a number of these modules are mounted in PV arrays that can measure up to several meters on a side. These flat-plate PV arrays can be mounted at a fixed angle facing south, or they can be mounted on a tracking device that follows the sun, allowing them to capture the most sunlight over the course of a day. Several connected PV arrays can provide enough power for a household; for large electric utility or industrial applications, hundreds of arrays can be interconnected to form a single, large PV system.
Thin film solar cells use layers of semiconductor materials only a few micrometers thick. Thin film technology has made it possible for solar cells to now double as rooftop shingles, roof tiles, building facades, or the glazing for skylights or atria. The solar cell version of items such as shingles offer the same protection and durability as ordinary asphalt shingles.
Some solar cells are designed to operate with concentrated sunlight. These cells are built into concentrating collectors that use a lens to focus the sunlight onto the cells. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages compared with flat-plate PV arrays. The main idea is to use very little of the expensive semiconducting PV material while collecting as much sunlight as possible. But because the lenses must be pointed at the sun, the use of concentrating collectors is limited to the sunniest parts of the country. Some concentrating collectors are designed to be mounted on simple tracking devices, but most require sophisticated tracking devices, which further limit their use to electric utilities, industries, and large buildings.
The performance of a solar cell is measured in terms of its efficiency at turning sunlight into electricity. Only sunlight of certain energies will work efficiently to create electricity, and much of it is reflected or absorbed by the material that make up the cell. Because of this, a typical commercial solar cell has an efficiency of 15%-about one-sixth of the sunlight striking the cell generates electricity. Low efficiencies mean that larger arrays are needed, and that means higher cost. Improving solar cell efficiencies while holding down the cost per cell is an important goal of the PV industry, NREL researchers, and other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, and they have made significant progress. The first solar cells, built in the 1950s, had efficiencies of less than 4%.
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Solar Electricity
Many power plants today use fossil fuels as a heat source to boil water. The steam from the boiling water rotates a large turbine, which activates a generator that produces electricity. However, a new generation of power plants, with concentrating solar power systems, uses the sun as a heat source. There are three main types of concentrating solar power systems: parabolic-trough, dish/engine, and power tower.
Parabolic-trough systems concentrate the sun’s energy through long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors. The mirrors are tilted toward the sun, focusing sunlight on a pipe that runs down the centre of the trough. This heats the oil flowing through the pipe. The hot oil then is used to boil water in a conventional steam generator to produce electricity.
A dish/engine system uses a mirrored dish (similar to a very large satellite dish). The dish-shaped surface collects and concentrates the sun’s heat onto a receiver, which absorbs the heat and transfers it to fluid within the engine. The heat causes the fluid to expand against a piston or turbine to produce mechanical power. The mechanical power is then used to run a generator or alternator to produce electricity.
We’ve used the Sun for drying clothes and food for thousands of years, but only recently have we been able to use it for generating power. The Sun is 150 million kilometres away, and amazingly powerful. Just the tiny fraction of the Sun’s energy that hits the Earth (around a hundredth of a millionth of a percent) is enough to meet all our power needs many times over.
In fact, every minute, enough energy arrives at the Earth to meet our demands for a whole year – if only we could harness it correctly.Solar energy technologies use the sun’s energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry.There are a variety of technologies that have been developed to take advantage of solar energy. These include:
Photovoltaic (solar cell) Systems
Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. Solar cells are often used to power calculators and watches. They are made of semiconducting materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect.
Solar cells are typically combined into modules that hold about 40 cells; a number of these modules are mounted in PV arrays that can measure up to several meters on a side. These flat-plate PV arrays can be mounted at a fixed angle facing south, or they can be mounted on a tracking device that follows the sun, allowing them to capture the most sunlight over the course of a day. Several connected PV arrays can provide enough power for a household; for large electric utility or industrial applications, hundreds of arrays can be interconnected to form a single, large PV system.
Thin film solar cells use layers of semiconductor materials only a few micrometers thick. Thin film technology has made it possible for solar cells to now double as rooftop shingles, roof tiles, building facades, or the glazing for skylights or atria. The solar cell version of items such as shingles offer the same protection and durability as ordinary asphalt shingles.
Some solar cells are designed to operate with concentrated sunlight. These cells are built into concentrating collectors that use a lens to focus the sunlight onto the cells. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages compared with flat-plate PV arrays. The main idea is to use very little of the expensive semiconducting PV material while collecting as much sunlight as possible. But because the lenses must be pointed at the sun, the use of concentrating collectors is limited to the sunniest parts of the country. Some concentrating collectors are designed to be mounted on simple tracking devices, but most require sophisticated tracking devices, which further limit their use to electric utilities, industries, and large buildings.
The performance of a solar cell is measured in terms of its efficiency at turning sunlight into electricity. Only sunlight of certain energies will work efficiently to create electricity, and much of it is reflected or absorbed by the material that make up the cell. Because of this, a typical commercial solar cell has an efficiency of 15%-about one-sixth of the sunlight striking the cell generates electricity. Low efficiencies mean that larger arrays are needed, and that means higher cost. Improving solar cell efficiencies while holding down the cost per cell is an important goal of the PV industry, NREL researchers, and other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, and they have made significant progress. The first solar cells, built in the 1950s, had efficiencies of less than 4%.
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Solar Electricity
Many power plants today use fossil fuels as a heat source to boil water. The steam from the boiling water rotates a large turbine, which activates a generator that produces electricity. However, a new generation of power plants, with concentrating solar power systems, uses the sun as a heat source. There are three main types of concentrating solar power systems: parabolic-trough, dish/engine, and power tower.
Parabolic-trough systems concentrate the sun’s energy through long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors. The mirrors are tilted toward the sun, focusing sunlight on a pipe that runs down the centre of the trough. This heats the oil flowing through the pipe. The hot oil then is used to boil water in a conventional steam generator to produce electricity.
A dish/engine system uses a mirrored dish (similar to a very large satellite dish). The dish-shaped surface collects and concentrates the sun’s heat onto a receiver, which absorbs the heat and transfers it to fluid within the engine. The heat causes the fluid to expand against a piston or turbine to produce mechanical power. The mechanical power is then used to run a generator or alternator to produce electricity.
5 uses of solar energy
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5 uses of solar energy
Our earth gets most of its energy from the sun. We call this energy solar energy. Sol means sun. Solar energy travels from the sun to the earth in rays. Some are light rays that we can see. Some are rays we can’t see, like x-rays. Energy in rays is called radiant energy. The sun is a giant ball of gas. It sends out huge rays of energy every day.
Most of the rays go off into space. Only a small part reaches the earth. When the rays reach the earth, some bounce off clouds back into space—the rays are reflected. The earth absorbs most of the solar energy and turns it into heat. This heat warms the earth and the air around it—the atmosphere. Without the sun, we couldn’t live on the earth—it would be too cold.
We Use Solar Energy
We use solar energy in many ways. During the day, we use sunlight to see what we are doing and where we are going.
FOOD
Plants use the light from the sun to grow. Plants absorb (take in) the solar energy and use it to grow. The plants keep some of the solar energy in their roots, fruits, and leaves. They store it as chemical energy. This process is called photosynthesis. The energy stored in plants feeds every living thing on the earth. When we eat plants and food made from plants, we store the energy in our bodies.
We use the energy to grow and move. We use it to pump our blood, think, see, hear, taste, smell and feel. We use energy for everything we do. The energy in the meat that we eat also comes from plants. Animals eat plants to grow. They store the plants’ energy in their bodies.
5 uses of solar energy
Our earth gets most of its energy from the sun. We call this energy solar energy. Sol means sun. Solar energy travels from the sun to the earth in rays. Some are light rays that we can see. Some are rays we can’t see, like x-rays. Energy in rays is called radiant energy. The sun is a giant ball of gas. It sends out huge rays of energy every day.
Most of the rays go off into space. Only a small part reaches the earth. When the rays reach the earth, some bounce off clouds back into space—the rays are reflected. The earth absorbs most of the solar energy and turns it into heat. This heat warms the earth and the air around it—the atmosphere. Without the sun, we couldn’t live on the earth—it would be too cold.
We Use Solar Energy
We use solar energy in many ways. During the day, we use sunlight to see what we are doing and where we are going.
FOOD
Plants use the light from the sun to grow. Plants absorb (take in) the solar energy and use it to grow. The plants keep some of the solar energy in their roots, fruits, and leaves. They store it as chemical energy. This process is called photosynthesis. The energy stored in plants feeds every living thing on the earth. When we eat plants and food made from plants, we store the energy in our bodies.
We use the energy to grow and move. We use it to pump our blood, think, see, hear, taste, smell and feel. We use energy for everything we do. The energy in the meat that we eat also comes from plants. Animals eat plants to grow. They store the plants’ energy in their bodies.
Definition of Solar Energy: What is Solar Energy?
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The definition of solar energy is very simple. Solar power is energy that is created by the sun and is the power from it, used in order to produce energy for many things here on earth. This type of energy is also clean, renewable and doesn’t cost anything.
Solar energy is growing in popularity because it’s the most abundant and the most cost effective energy source we have. The amount of energy the sun gives to the earth in one day, can power the whole planet and its energy needs for an entire year; and because solar power is only available as long as the sun is up, it is considered a renewable source of energy and will not harm the planet or the environment.
The definition of solar energy is very simple. Solar power is energy that is created by the sun and is the power from it, used in order to produce energy for many things here on earth. This type of energy is also clean, renewable and doesn’t cost anything.
Solar energy is growing in popularity because it’s the most abundant and the most cost effective energy source we have. The amount of energy the sun gives to the earth in one day, can power the whole planet and its energy needs for an entire year; and because solar power is only available as long as the sun is up, it is considered a renewable source of energy and will not harm the planet or the environment.
Solar Energy is Pollution Free
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Solar energy is frequently used in residential homes to heat water. This is an easy application, as the desired end result (hot water) is the storage facility. Solar energy is also relatively weak because it must first pass through the atmosphere, which protects the Earth from the sun’s intensity. As such, the intermittent and variable manner in which solar energy arrives on the Earth’s surface means it creates reliability problems. Solar energy is produced at the core of the sun by nuclear fusion. This energy is then radiated to the convection zone, where mixing transfers the energy to the photosphere.
Photovoltaic energy is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a solar cell or PV, is the technology used to convert solar energy directly into electrical power. Photovoltaic solar energy is produced when the sun’s energy, in the form of photons, strikes a photovoltaic cell and is transmitted to electrons within the semiconductor material in the PV cell, causing an electrical current. Each photovoltaic cell generates only a small amount of energy, so many cells are grouped together into a module; then several modules are combined to form a solar panel. Photovoltaic energy systems cost an average of $12,000 to $18,000 per kilowatt, according to data from Solar Services Inc. The price goes down per kilowatt installed.
Solar energy is frequently used in residential homes to heat water. This is an easy application, as the desired end result (hot water) is the storage facility. Solar energy is also relatively weak because it must first pass through the atmosphere, which protects the Earth from the sun’s intensity. As such, the intermittent and variable manner in which solar energy arrives on the Earth’s surface means it creates reliability problems. Solar energy is produced at the core of the sun by nuclear fusion. This energy is then radiated to the convection zone, where mixing transfers the energy to the photosphere.
Photovoltaic energy is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a solar cell or PV, is the technology used to convert solar energy directly into electrical power. Photovoltaic solar energy is produced when the sun’s energy, in the form of photons, strikes a photovoltaic cell and is transmitted to electrons within the semiconductor material in the PV cell, causing an electrical current. Each photovoltaic cell generates only a small amount of energy, so many cells are grouped together into a module; then several modules are combined to form a solar panel. Photovoltaic energy systems cost an average of $12,000 to $18,000 per kilowatt, according to data from Solar Services Inc. The price goes down per kilowatt installed.
Solar Energy Risks To Health
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Solar energy is a potential source of free electricity and water heating. It offers the power to enjoy electrical power in remote areas of the world. It seems to offer health and safety along with power, but does it?
Solar energy health risks are seldom mentioned. That may be partially due to the limited use of this source of energy. It may also be due to the lack of research in this area. Some have begun to study solar energy health risks, however, and if one researches long enough, a few estimates are available.
Thermal Solar Energy Health Risks
Solar energy health risks are inherent to the design and installation of most thermal energy systems. These are the systems designed to heat water and air for household use.
Solar water heaters complete three basic operations before delivering hot water to your faucet or your heating unit:
1. collect sunlight and convert it into heat energy.
2. circulate fluids that transfer the heat energy to a storage unit
3. store the hot water until you need it
The solar energy health risks with such a system usually occur in the storage units. Some units allow for the growth of allergenic molds and fungi.
If proper materials are used for the storage unit, however, these solar energy systems present few, if any, health risks. Their advantages are that they are far safer than most fossil fuels or nuclear power – they have no emissions and do not pollute the air.
Solar energy is a potential source of free electricity and water heating. It offers the power to enjoy electrical power in remote areas of the world. It seems to offer health and safety along with power, but does it?
Solar energy health risks are seldom mentioned. That may be partially due to the limited use of this source of energy. It may also be due to the lack of research in this area. Some have begun to study solar energy health risks, however, and if one researches long enough, a few estimates are available.
Thermal Solar Energy Health Risks
Solar energy health risks are inherent to the design and installation of most thermal energy systems. These are the systems designed to heat water and air for household use.
Solar water heaters complete three basic operations before delivering hot water to your faucet or your heating unit:
1. collect sunlight and convert it into heat energy.
2. circulate fluids that transfer the heat energy to a storage unit
3. store the hot water until you need it
The solar energy health risks with such a system usually occur in the storage units. Some units allow for the growth of allergenic molds and fungi.
If proper materials are used for the storage unit, however, these solar energy systems present few, if any, health risks. Their advantages are that they are far safer than most fossil fuels or nuclear power – they have no emissions and do not pollute the air.