SOLAR ENERGY

Introduction

All the energy we use everyday is provided by the Sun. Fossil fuels like petrol and coal were created from ancient dead plants, which grew and got their energy from the Sun. Electricity is made through burning fossil fuels. Even the food that we eat was made out of the Sun's energy – the animals we eat? ate plants that get energy through sunlight.

The Sun is a gigantic source of energy. On sunny days, the sun shines more than 1000 watts of energy onto each square meter on the Earth's surface. That is a huge amount of free energy! However, collecting that energy and turning it into useful forms of energy is the hard part. This page will explore the use of solar panels to obtain power.

Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. Solar panels are made of many solar cells connected together. When sunlight shines onto a solar cell, electrons are pushed off one side of the cell, creating a flow of electrons – electricity! The more the amount of solar cells a solar panel is made of, the bigger the panel is, and the more the sunlight that can be collected and used to make electricity. In other words, bigger solar panels can turn more sunlight into electricity.What's more, solar panels do not pollute the environment at all! Sunlight is converted into electricity in a totally clean process.

AVAILABILITY

Solar panels can be used all over the world, and can be produced in many countries. However, as solar panels can only make electricity when light shines on them, people who live in places with little sunlight, such as countries in the temperate regions. On the other hand, solar panels can be better used by people who live in tropical areas, as more sunlight is received. This allows more energy to be gained from each solar panel.

COST

Solar panels are expensive. Large amounts of money are required to install solar panels. It would cost you sixteen thousand US dollars to install enough solar panels on your house to provide all your energy. That cost does not include the cost of installing batteries to store energy for nighttime or rainy days.

However, once solar panels are installed, energy gained would be totally free of charge. The only money you would have to pay would be for maintanence and replacement of batteries every twenty years.

Currently, however, it is still cheaper to buy your electricity instead of paying several thousand dollars to install solar panels. Solar panels will only be worth the money when the cost of solar panels goes down and their efficiency increases.

LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY

The first solar panel was created in the 1950s. Back then, solar panels were used to power satellites in space. Since then, the efficiency of solar panels has increased dramatically. Now, the most efficient solar panels in the world can convert over 40 percent of the light that falls onto them into electricity! That is really efficient compared to the efficiency levels of the old solar panels!

However, even though the most advanced solar panels can achieve higher efficiency levels, they are very expensive to make, and still waste over 50 percent of the sunlight that falls on them. Our technologies are not advanced enough to create cheap but efficient solar panels yet.

TRANSPORT AND ACCESSIBILITY

It is better to place solar panels in areas with large periods of unblocked sunlight such as deserts and tropical areas where there is a lot of light all year round than place them in countries that experience winter or cities with a lot of buildings to cast a lot of shadows during the day. Therefore, some countries with deserts have constructed large areas in the desert that focus light onto solar panels, and the electricity that is generated is sent through wires to cities. In these cases, solar energy is accessible as wires can be laid to transport the generated electricity over long distances safely.

Alternatively, some house owners in sunny areas can buy solar panels to install on the roof of their houses to provide electricity for them.

However, many people do not have the luxury of living in sunny, tropical areas or living in a country with access to such areas like deserts. Hence, it is hard for these people to get access to solar energy, as they live in places unsuited for the collection of solar energy.

GOVERNMENT POLICIES

Most governments are supportive of the use of solar panels in houses, and there are no laws preventing people from installing their own solar panels. In some countries, the government encourages the people to install solar panels in their houses and gives incentives such as the ability to sell the electricity back to the power supplier. In other words, they pay you to give them your excess energy from your solar panels.

Governments of countries that have access to areas suitable for large-scale collection of sunlight have also built solar generation sites to harness the energy available.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

Solar energy does not harm the environment as no pollution is generated and no destruction of the environment is needed to build solar panels. This source of energy is a very “clean” source of energy, and it offsets the air pollution and global warming that would have been made it fossil fuels had been used to generate the electricity.

Also, it is very safe compared to other energy sources such as nuclear power and hydroelectric power.

FEASIBILITY

Solar power as an energy source is clean and safe, and sunlight is available worldwide. However, the use of solar energy to power our world is currently not feasible as the level of technology of solar panels is currently too low, as the efficiency of many solar panels can still be improved on, and the cost of making solar panels is too high.

However, in the future, the use of solar panels for electricity will become more feasible as the cost-efficiency of solar panels will increase while the costs of other forms of energy such as coal and oil will rise.