What is Solar Energy?
Author: Dave Richards
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.
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.
If a copper wire is connected between the positive layer and the negative layer, free electrons are pushed into the negative layer. This flow of electrons is called electrical current, which can run a calculator or other electrical devices. Multiple cells are connected together to form a solar energy panel.
Solar energy is stored as DC (direct current). A DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) converter is connected to the solar panel to convert the solar energy to alternating current. Direct current is a one-way flow of charge through an electrical conductor. Current is caused by a flow of negatively charged electrons along a metallic conductor.
Alternating current is electric current which repeatedly changes polarity from negative to positive and back again. The most commonly used form of alternating current does so in a sine wave pattern.
All house appliances for example - fridges, stoves and kitchenware as well as office equipment works with alternating current.
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About the Author
About the author: Dave Richard's has publish renewable energy articles for the past few years and offers tips on wind and solar energy. View my latest articles at HomeElect.com You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
would the solar energy concentrated be converted 100% to heat energy?
I would like to know if i have a black metal can and put water in it and if i concentrate sunlight to it. say, if there is 1kw/m^2 of sunlight, then if i concentrate 1 square meter of sunlight to the black metal can. would the solar energy concentrated be converted 100% to heat energy? meaning i would have 1kw of heat energy getting into the metal can? if not, what are the normal values of conversion?
can i have an average value for the rate of conversion?
It’s a thermodynamic system, and you need to apply the methods of thermodynamics to answer the question for a specific situation. Even if the surface were ideal black, the can is always emitting black body radiation, and is losing heat by conduction. When the can is cold, it’s absorbing nearly all the incident heat; when it’s hot, it’s radiating as much as it’s absorbing.
How is solar power converted into thermal and electrical energy? See details?
Solar power means energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy? Can u please give me an example of each? Sun ——> _____________
Sun——-> _____________
Follow the link I will provide in the sources. It has a very detailed description on how thermal energy (photons) is converted into electrical energy.
Hope this helps
It requires people to manufacture the solar cells (in a semi-conductor plant) as well as people to get up on roofs to install them, PV doesn’t require much maintenance although solar thermal (pretty much restricted to large scale generation) does require quite a bit of maintenance.
The diffuse nature of solar power means that you need a lot of collectors to get a decent amount of power out of it so solar would create quite a lot of jobs for the amount of power generated which is one of the disadvantages of solar power compared to other more concentrated forms of power. Creating jobs isn’t really of much use if the jobs are useless and having more people working in the energy industry than necessary means that there are less people available to work elsewhere (though there are much better arguments against ground based solar power).
If we reduced our energy usage by the levels that many solar and wind proponents want us to then we’d probably find we don’t have enough energy to run any of our factories (although those levels are never going to happen so it isn’t a very realistic worry).
what does solar energy mean?
i am doing a big project and i need to know what is solar energy
Photovoltaics (PV) is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells for energy by converting sunlight directly into electricity. Due to the growing demand for clean sources of energy, the manufacture of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has expanded dramatically in recent years.
Active solar systems use solar collectors and additional electricity to power pumps or fans to distribute the sun’s energy. The heart of a solar collector is a black absorber which converts the sun’s energy into heat. The heat is then transferred to another location for immediate heating or for storage for use later. The heat is transferred by circulating water, antifreeze or sometimes air..
Passive solar heating and cooling represents an important strategy for displacing traditional energy sources in buildings. Anyone who has sat by a sunny, south-facing window on a winter day has felt the effects of passive solar energy.
Linear concentrator systems collect the sun’s energy using long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors.
Solar energy is light that has been given off by the Sun and is harnessed by humans for multiple uses such as electricity, technology and things of that nature. solar energy is a renewable resource, which means we don’t have to worry about running out of it, like fossil fuels(coal, oil, and natural gas). The most common way to obtain solar energy is through solar panels. Solar energy, along with many other renewable resources, are going through extensive research and development. Solar energy is also one of the fastest growing ways we obtain our energy needs.
What are some jobs created by using solar energy?
I mean how is solar energy contributing to the job market?
Is it creating more jobs? If so, which ones?
If not, why not?
can you explain in your own words what kind these solar energy words mean?
can u explain in your own words what these mean!
photovoltaic cells
active solar energy
passive solar energy
concentrating solar power systems