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A concern when considering to use solar power is that, of course, the Sun does not shine at night. However, if we want solar electricity at night we must find some means of storing it during the day. Small machines, such as portable computers, can be powered by batteries that are recharged in daylight using photovoltaic cells. Click here to read more - Make Your Own Solar Panels and DIY Solar Panel
Solar energy could also be used to create hydrogen from water for use in fuel cells.
Large electric motors used to run a building’s air-conditioning system or to power elevators would need large banks of batteries for operation at night or on cloudy days. When the Sun is hidden the battery bank discharges power. When the Sun shines the batteries discharge less power as more solar energy becomes available. Around midday the photovoltaic cells begin to produce more energy than is needed and start to recharge the batteries. The batteries continue to charge throughout the daylight hours. The battery bank is a critical part of the solar powered building. Already, banks have been developed that can supply power throughout five days of overcast weather.
The day may come when our homes, school and work places are heated by solar energy and most of our machinery is solar-powered. Solar energy is clean, safe and plentiful, but it is a big step from the solar-powered pocket calculator to an entirely solar-powered office block.
Electrical engineers and other scientists are seeking ways to make cheaper and more efficient photovoltaic cells. One way of doing this is to develop materials that are more transparent. New silicon parts are being produced that do not prevent the Sun’s rays from hitting the light-sensitive metal part of the cell. Smaller, more light-sensitive cells will capture more sunlight, and therefore provide more energy.
The solar power industry is not only working on ways of improving its technology, but also looking at how that technology can be integrated more effectively into the structure of buildings. For example roofing tiles or shingles can now be replaced by an array of solar cells. Designers can blend translucent panels into office buildings, so that may of the modern glass and steel skyscrapers in our cities could have large solar-power producing panels fitted instead of the glass.
European designers are even manufacturing Solar Panels in different colors and shapes. As a result, a building’s power source could be a design element, perhaps with a company name or logo, picked out in colored solar panels.
Solar Communications
Hundreds of public telephones in remote parts of Australia now run on solar power, and the houses in which athletes lived for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney were designed to run largely on solar power. The use of home solar power systems has become a great help for many individuals in many parts of the world today.
Off the grid
While solar power is mostly used to augment or back up conventional sources of power, there are already about 20,000 homes across the United States that are ‘off the grid’ (not drawing power from local utility companies) and totally reliant on solar power. The reason why more don’t follow suit is that solar power equipment costs around three to five times as much as getting power from the grid. However, it may be worth it for people living in remote areas. It might also be worthwhile for rural communities in countries where the electricity supply grid is not as efficient as it is in the industrialized nations.
