A door to new World Solar Energy

Solar Energy: A Ray of Big Hope for India and the World Amidst Heavy Power Crisis Around the Globe

Solar energy is the most important form of energy having tremendous opportunities for fulfilling the power needs of billions of the people. Every hour the sun beams onto Earth more than enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year. The energy of the sun has been used by us as far back as humans have existed on this planet. As far back as 5,000 years ago, people "worshiped" the sun. Ra, the sun-god, who was considered the first king of Egypt. In Mesopotamia, the sun-god Shamash was a major deity and was equated with justice. In Greece there were two sun deities, Apollo and Helios. The influence of the sun also appears in other religions – Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Roman religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Druids of England, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, and many Native American tribes.

Photovoltaic cells, or solar panels, found on things like spacecraft, rooftops, and handheld calculators which are made of semiconductor materials like those found in computer chips. When sunlight hits the cells, it knocks electrons loose from their atoms. As the electrons flow through the cell, they generate electricity.

Plants use the sun's light to make food. Animals eat plants for food. Decaying plants and animals hundreds of millions of years ago produced the coal, oil and natural gas that we use today. So, fossil fuels is actually sunlight stored millions and millions of years ago. Indirectly, the sun or other stars are responsible for all form of energy. Even nuclear energy comes from a star because the uranium atoms used in nuclear energy were created in the fury of a nova – a star exploding.




A few industries have increased in size dramatically over a relatively short period. The computer trade is an obvious one. And now so is the solar energy trade. New manufacturers are appearing almost daily, new product innovations are announced just as fast, and existing products are ever more refined, improved, and lowered in price. It's an exciting time for the people involved in the various solar energy industries, and this heightened focus translates to better deals for the consumer, whether residential, commercial, government or other.


Solar energy usage is very much wider in diversified fields. One of the biggest is solar hot water, whether for residential or commercial the use of the sun's heat to warm a potable water supply instead of electricity is a very efficient method and truly cost-effective. Solar HVAC systems, battery-backed off-grid systems, solar farms and more are at the forefront of the solar power world innovations, with many more to come in very near future. On a much larger scale, solar thermal power plants employ various techniques to concentrate the sun's energy as a heat source. The heat is then used to boil water to drive a steam turbine that generates electricity in much the same fashion as coal and nuclear power plants, supplying electricity for thousands of people.
Solar energy is lauded as an inexhaustible fuel source that is pollution and often noise free. The technology is also versatile. For example, solar cells generate energy for far-out places like satellites in Earth orbit and cabins deep in the Rocky Mountains as easily as they can power downtown buildings and futuristic cars. But solar energy doesn't work at night without a storage device such as a battery, and cloudy weather can make the technology unreliable during the day. Solar technologies are also very expensive and require a lot of land area to collect the sun's energy at rates useful to lots of people.

Quick facts:

• One kilowatt-hour (kWh) equals the amount of electricity needed to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
• A 1 kilowatt peak solar system generates around 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate and about 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate.
• A solar energy system can provide electricity 24 hours a day when the solar electric modules are combined with batteries in one integrated energy system.
• Solar modules produce electricity even on cloudy days, usually around 10-20% of the amount produced on sunny days.
• The typical components of a solar home system include the solar module, an inverter, a battery, a charge controller (sometimes known as a regulator), wiring, and support structure.
• A typical silicon cell solar module will have a life in excess of 20 years
• Assuming 100% absorption of solar energy, it takes about 88 minutes of solar radiation to cover for overall human energy consumption for a whole year!  However, actual absorption of solar radiation is limited to about 1% leaving 99% of solar radiation energy being wasted.
• Solar energy striking the Earth goes about 50% absorbed by Earth itself while 30% of solar energy is being reflected back into space.

 The main advantages of solar energy systems:

• Solar energy is free and abundant energy supplied by nature itself
• Solar energy systems are environmentally friendly – as an alternative green energy source.
• Solar panels (photovoltaic PV panels) can be easily placed in residential areas (residential solar panels) in on or off grid installations
• On grid solar panel installations supply generated electricity to the power network
• Off-grid solar panels store generated electricity for own use – e.g. in country farms and remote areas.
• Solar panels cost has been falling and is expected to continue on a diminishing turn in the future; this means that PV panels will gradually become economically more viable – not in need of any subsidy incentives.

 

 The main disadvantages of solar energy systems:

• Solar energy is directly dependent on weather conditions; thus solar energy without any energy storage equipment (especially in cloudy, rainy weather conditions) is considered highly unstable and unreliable energy source.
• The cost of solar panels (cost of solar energy systems in general), though on a diminishing trend, is still high compared to conventional alternatives – that is why, solar energy systems need to be supported by financial incentives for solar energy initiatives to off-set their initial investment.

 
 Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission by the Ministry of New and Renewable energy, Government of India is a big step towards utilizing solar energy, which is widely available across the vast geographies of India.


(Click here : for Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission pdf ) 

Solar energy is having a very high potential to serve the world's energy needs. Governments all round the world must give more attention on these prospects. Awareness in society is very much needed for the different equipments and usage of solar energy.