No matter what you may have heard, solar energy is the wave of the future, in large part because of its utter simplicity. A photovoltaic, cell collects energy from the sun, and that energy is converted into electricity without the use of chemicals, liquids, or moving parts. It’s that easy.
A number of solar cells are generally linked together on a solar panel, hooked up in series to allow all the cells to work in unison. The energy that’s generated is then stored in a battery, in the form of DC current. Since most household appliances run on AC current, the electricity is then converted to AC current by a device called an inverter.
The efficiency of photovoltaic cells has improved a great deal over the past few years, but it still would take a huge array of panels to run your entire house with solar power. Even so, it’s still possible to use solar to power at least a portion of you home at a relatively minimal cost. For instance, you could power your home computer and a few other small electrical appliances using a system that costs about $1,000.00 to have installed. At the moment, solar systems generally cost about $10.00-$12.00 per watt.
Since it’s totally renewable and doesn’t pollute, it’s easy to see that the future of solar power is so bright. If we could harness just one hour’s worth of the suns total solar power every day, we’d have enough energy to fuel the entire planet’s energy needs for a whole year. That’s an amazing amount of potential power, and it’s just waiting for us to tap into it.
As photovoltaic cells continue to improve, the cost of solar energy will keep coming down, and eventually, it will become economically feasible for everyone to switch to solar. Enormous amounts of money are being poured into solar research–some of it from seemingly unlikely sources, such as a number of major oil companies. However, that shouldn’t really come as a surprise, because they can see the handwriting on the wall as well as anyone, and it’s clear that they, like most forward thinking people, understand that the future of the world’s energy lies in solar power.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
By: Jeanette Joy Fisher
The future of solar energy is so bright that I’m not even going to use any clichés about sun glasses or what have you. I will say, however, that the full brightness can’t be appreciated until you factor in the concept of net metering.
There are many environmental and political reasons for going solar. This clean energy also presents us with a platform that is not reliant on coal, foreign oil or fossil fuels. It seems like a natural choice for energy production, but the cost of installing solar systems is not cheap. Fortunately, the tax incentives and favorable loan options have gone a long way to overcoming this problem. The real cherry in the pie for some people, however, is the concept of net metering.
How much did your utility charge you last month for electricity? Go ahead and dig out the bill or just make an estimate. Now, what if you could get that figure eliminated or reduced to next to nothing month after month? Consider how much money you would save over 1 year, 10 years or 30 years. Well, that is what net metering is all about.
What is net metering? It is a glorious thing. At its core, it refers to the reduction of your electrical bill by selling electricity generated by your solar panels back to the utility company. Huh? Think the process through. How much electricity do you use during the day on say Wednesday? The usual answer is not a lot because most of us are at work while the kids are at school. During this time, the energy produced by the solar panels on the house can be fed back into the electrical grid automatically. When this happens, the electric meter on your home actually runs backwards. When you need electricity at night, the meter then runs forward. Each month, you pay for the net meter reading which is the difference between what you use and what you put back in the system. This is often nothing or a few bucks.
Is there any downside to net metering? Yes and no. The only real downside is some states don’t offer it, so you need to check before you rush out to buy a system. The second downside is very minor. While you can reduce your bill to nothing, you cannot actually generate money from the utility by selling them more energy than you use. If that occurs, your bill is simply zeroed out.
There are a lot of benefits to going with solar energy. That being said, don’t forget the often overlooked cash savings associated with net metering.
By: Thomas Ajava
The world’s efforts to veer away from the high environmental costs of power sources such as fossil fuels has led to aggressive developments in the field of solar energy. Now there are many ways of harnessing energy from the light of the sun, and more and more solar power applications are being implemented.
Solar energy technically refers to energy from the sun. This “energy” is actually electromagnetic radiation, which the sun abundantly sends out to the earth. So bounteous is solar energy that the planet is only able to use a very small fraction of it – about 400 million times less than what the sun gives. Scientists and inventors are now finding new ways to channel all the unused energy for more practical applications.
Solar energy also encompasses “indirect” forms of energy from the sun, like wind, hydropower, and biomass, among others. Solar energy is now being incorporated in industries ranging from architecture to mass energy (power plants).
Many industrial buildings and homes now employ solar designs to substitute for grid electricity and fossil fuels. Architectural features such as insulation and efficient lighting and appliances help reduce the usage of energy in any structure. Even heating and thermal cooling systems are now powered by solar energy, and so are circulation pumps.
A lot of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants are now being built in developed countries and will soon replace existing power sources. Japan, Australia, Germany and the United States are among the countries actively pursuing the shift to solar CSPs.
There’s good news: solar energy is getting cheaper. The average retail cost of a large solar panel is now only $4 per watt (from about $7 just a few years ago). The decline in prices is slow, but is enough to make developers optimistic. Tax and rebate incentives have also been given to the solar energy industry, enabling developers to work more aggressively without worrying about overspending. This means that the world may be powered entirely by the sun sooner than we think.
By: Jimmy Sturo