How does Solar Power work? It is a reasonable question. First lets establish that almost all of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun. Indirectly when you get out of bed in the morning, you are using solar energy. All life on earth gets its energy directly or indirectly from the Sun. Both oil and gas come from the decayed remains of life that existed millions of years ago, and which got its energy from the sun.

Each day the earth receives a tremendous amount of energy from the sun. Much of this is absorbed by the oceans and the earth. Green plants convert this energy into food which forms the basis of the planets food chain. There are a variety of ways that man can take advantage of this energy. For example, my step dad used to heat the pool with a coil of ABS pipe which collected heat from the sun on the pool house roof. Not very fancy but quite functional.

how do solar power work

When you think of a portable solar panel you usually think of something smaller.

Today when we hear about solar power the first thing we think of is a solar panel, but solar panels are very recent addition to the field of solar power. Man has been taking advantage of the sun’s energy since before recorded history. One very easy thing to do, is to heat water, as my dad did in the earlier example. Raisins are even made using solar energy.

With the advance of solid-state electronics came the creation of the solar cell, which is the building block of a solar panel. It is not absolutely vital to know exactly how solar panels work,but the basics are relatively simple. The sun shines on the solar panel, solar cells in the solar panel created excess of electrons which causes a flow. If you’re familiar with a battery then you know that electricity flows from where this a greater concentration of electrons to where there’s a lesser concentration. This flow of electrons is used to either directly power some electric device, or it is used to charge a battery so that this flow can be stored for future use. Later after the sun goes down this power can be used to power lights or some other device or electric appliance.

The main disadvantage of solar panels is the fact that they only convert about 20% of the sun’s energy which they receive, meaning that 80% is wasted. While a great deal of research is being done to improve this efficiency, the good part is that the sun provides more energy to the Earth in a day than the planet’s population will use in well over a year, so there is some room for waste. Still to make solar panels universally cost effective, the efficiency and cost of production will need to be improved.

There are many types of solar panels and each type has its advantages. I will be outlining these and other articles.

Filed under: Solar Energy Education

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