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Solar
Power Article Archive!
Solar Power
Explained
By MRK, Contributing
Editor
Solar power is the process of using the light from sun and turning it
into an energy source. It has become a reliable alternative to regular
power sources in remote areas. It has even been used in outer space.
Lately it's become a hot topic of discussion and interest. It's starting
to get much more attention for use other than just in remote areas and
outer space.
Solar power is used in homes for main power, cooking, lighting, and
heating
of water for hot water uses and radiant heat systems. There has been a
rise
of interest for the use of solar power not only in the residential
areana
but also in commercial and architectural projects.
It has become even more popular as the cost of fossil fuel continues to
rise.
There are several applications of solar power. The most popular would
probably be the use of solar panels which are designed to collect the
power
from the sun.
Once solar energy is collected by the solar panels it has to be
converted
into energy. This can be done by a process called solar thermal
application.
It involves using the energy from the sun to directly heat air or
liquids.
The process of photoelectric application involves the use of
photovoltaic
cells to change the energy into electricity.
I just put this process to work for me in a recent duplex
construction
project that I built on the upper 40 acres of my property. I went
with the
name, "Green built". Going Green is a completely different subject that
I
will be discussing in future articles so stay tuned!
Solar power poses no harm to the environment. However, other threats
to the environment may affect the ability to use solar power in the
future.
Global dimming is the result of pollution. Global dimming is caused by
pollution particles and global warming.
It causes less sunlight to reach the surface of the Earth. A recent
concern
with global dimming is that pollution will continue to rise which in
effect
will not allow enough sunlight to reach the Earth's surface. Some will
argue
that this won't effect any of us in OUR life time. To me that is a
fairly
self centered point of view.
The Solar Electric Power Association is an organization of electric
utility
companies and the solar industry. They joined together to find
solutions to
meet our energy needs. SEPA is a network of more than one hundred
companies.
Fifty are utility companies, twenty five are solar companies, and the
rest
are various types of businesses. They share experiences, knowledge, and
information about solar programs, They also discuss policies and
technology
relating to their field.
Is solar energy right for you?
It's getting a lot more attention lately as many people are in search
of alternate
forms of energy as the cost and of fossil fuels seems to keep going up.
There are plenty of advantages to using this as a safe alternative to
fossil fuel.
Solar energy is free and in many cases excess energy produced by your
personally owned solar systems can be sold back to the local power
companies.
Another plus is that it can be used in areas where electricity can’t be
set up
easily. The key source for solar energy is the sun, a resource that is
definately
not going to be depleted anytime soon.
Disadvantages are that it doesn’t work at night. The cost of creating
solar power
stations to store such energy at a commercial level is still very
expensive.
Other disadvantages are that in some areas of the world, solar energy
just isn’t
a full time option because the climate does not receive enough sun
light.
These disadvantages don't effect the majority of us and in my opinion
should not
keep just about everyone from considering some form of solar energy.
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