Solar Energy How It Works Pdf

Of solar energy in recent years solar power accounts for less than one percent of electricity use in the united states.

Solar energy how it works pdf.

Panels are installed on rooftops or open areas such as parking lots or fields that have full sun exposure. Solar panels can collect solar energy on cloudy days a larger grouping of solar. 1 how solar panels work introduction in this lesson students will learn that sunlight is the underlying component of energy use. Even in sunny parts of the world s temperate regions for instance a collector must have a surface.

Approximately 650 000 businesses and homes are currently using solar energy. Among the most common devices used to capture solar energy and convert it to thermal energy are flat plate collectors which are used for solar heating applications. A report from the international energy agency showed that solar energy has the potential of becoming the largest global source of electricity by 2050. There is a fact or if you wish a law governing all natural phenomena that are known to date.

A standard solar panel also known as a solar module consists of a layer of silicon cells a metal frame a glass casing and various wiring to allow current to flow from the silicon cells silicon atomic 14 on the periodic table is a nonmetal with conductive properties that allow it to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity. Poweroutputpersecondis 3 86 x 1020 megawatts mw several billion times the electric capacity of u s. It is an essential source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending. We will begin with a quote from the feynman lectures on physics.

Solar panels are groups of solar modules connected electrically to generate direct current electricity at the desired voltage and current. Students will examine atoms as the basic building blocks of matter including electrons protons and. Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun that is harnessed using a range of ever evolving technologies such as solar heating photovoltaics solar thermal energy solar architecture molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis. There is no known exception to this law it is exact so far as we know.

13 however given the abundance of solar energy and its popular appeal this resource is likely to play a prominent role in our energy future. Sunlight reaching earth even though the sun ranks as a run of the millstar it releases a huge quantity of energy in terms of human capacityor need. They explain how to use solar energy to purify drinking. Energy as this book is on solar energy it is good to start the discussion with some general thoughts on energy.

The words solar power often bring to mind solar panels and photovoltaic pv solar systems but you can harness the sun s energy in a number of smaller ways. Because the intensity of solar radiation at earth s surface is so low these collectors must be large in area. How do solar panels work to generate electricity.