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What you Should Know about Solar Power
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You are getting yourself some fresh pineapple drink in your refrigerator on a particular summer day when you suddenly spot a piece of paper in your ref door. It is your electric utility bill for that month, and you are surprised to see that your electric bill for that particular month increased by nearly 15 percent of your previous bill. There are additional charges included in your monthly bill, and sad to say you are having hard time coping with this additional increase.
Increases in power bills of a regular US household are due to the increasing demand of natural resources such as coil, oil, and gas. Everyday, the demands continues to grow on a daily basis worldwide. Add to it the costs in producing and transporting such resources that serves as fuels to our existing power plants today. Not to mention other external factors such as weather conditions and unstable market prices in the crude market.
That is why many other alternative sources of energy are becoming more and more popular nowadays. Many industries and households are starting to utilize renewable sources of energy not only to minimize their energy consumption cost but also to eliminate harmful effects of using non-renewable sources of energy to the environment. And one of this is the solar power.
Solar Power: An Overview
Solar power is derived from the power emitted by the sun to produce energy. The sun emits enough solar energy on the Earth in one day to supply energy needs of the world for one year. The amount of solar power that the Earth receives from the sun is estimated to be 770 trillion kilowatts or an amount 5,000 times bigger than the sum of all energy resources we are using, may it be nuclear, geothermal, or gravitational energy.
It is considered to be one of the renewable sources of energy because it will exist as long as the sun does. The estimated remaining life of the sun is around 4.5 billion years.
Solar power is produced primarily through the use of photovoltaic cells, or commonly known as the solar cells. The process of converting solar power into electricity is as follows: The solar cells are placed under direct sunlight. The rays of the sun hits the cells initiating a chemical reaction that creates an electric current. This current is later turned into electricity.
Passive Solar and Active Solar
There are two classification of solar power: passive solar and active solar. The first classification does not make use of panel systems or other moving mechanisms to produce solar power. Instead, it involves planning a structure in such a way that it can capture the rays of the sun with windows, tanks, and other permanent structure. This system can be used to provide heat to houses, water, and so on.
The second classification involves the solar panels or the group of solar cells. These panels are placed in such a away that its exposure to the sunlight is maximized. It will convert sunlight to electricity, which is transformed later on from direct current (DC) electricity to alternate current (AC) electricity, and consumed it immediately or store it in batteries. It may be also fed into the grid system of the local utility.
Pros and Cons of Solar Power
There are numerous advantages of using solar power. These are enumerated in the following items:
1. Solar power is almost limitless. Remember that the remaining life span of the sun is estimated to be 4.5 billion years.
2. It is relatively abundant.
3. It can be absorbed, reflected, transmitted, and insulated.
4. It can be stored in batteries for night time use.
There are also disadvantages. These are the following:
1. Initial costs on installation of solar power systems are quite expensive.
2. Cloudy weather condition can be a problem in collecting solar power.
3. Solar power can not be produced at night.
Try energizing your home using solar power. It is worth giving a try.
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How Solar Energy Produced Specific links
How Solar Energy Produced News
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Puget Sound Energy’s work in bringing renewable energy demonstration systems to Washington schools will take another step forward in 2009 with the utility today issuing a request for proposals for up to five schools to each receive a 1.1 kilowatt solar array or small wind turbine this year.
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