Solar Power Generation

The sun supplies the earth with power in the form of light and heat. This free energy source has been harnessed for the past several decades for solar power generation and helped to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels as a result. As this technology continues to improve in efficiency each year and can produce even more power at a lower cost, it will become the technology of choice for the generation of power.

Solar power generation falls into one of two categories and either uses the light the sun provides to generate power, or the heat. Photovoltaics are responsible for the conversion of light to energy and solar thermal is the technology used to convert the radiant heat from sunlight into energy. Both of these provide clean, non-polluting power from sunlight and each has its own distinct advantages.

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Photovoltaic Solar Power

Photovoltaic or PV solar power generation has been available for decades and started in commercial applications initially. These early PV installations used fairly inefficient solar panels by today’s standards and were too expensive and fragile for residential use.

As this technology improved over the years these solar panels were able to produce more and more power from a given amount of sunlight and started to cross over into residential applications.

What really made this solar power generation technology popular with homeowners was the introduction of solar rebates and solar tax credits for installing one of these systems. These financial incentives made installing one of these solar power systems a good financial move as well as a green one.

Thermal Solar Power

Thermal solar power generation is still only used commercially because of the large area and funding it requires. The way solar thermal works is that a large number of reflectors are set up that track the movement of the sun throughout the day.

These reflectors concentrate the sunlight on a series of pipes that have a liquid flowing through them. As the liquid is heated it turns to steam and this steam drives a turbine that spins and generates electricity.

Several versions of these systems can also store excess heat in a holding tank filled with liquid salt that can be used to spin the turbine in the evenings. Some of these systems use a concave trough reflector system and other more exotic installations use a tall tower to have the sunlight focused on.

These systems require a large tract of land to operate and a clear view of the sun from sunrise to sunset. Because of this they are normally found in remote desert areas where sun is plentiful and land is inexpensive.

The challenge with this selection of location is that for these systems to operate they need a large supply of water to circulate through the pipes and this is in short supply in these remote regions.

Another new and somewhat experimental technique for solar power conversion is the solar chimney. In this type of installation a large greenhouse is built that allows sunlight to enter through large windows. This sunlight then heats the interior air of this greenhouse and the air expands through a central tower or chimney. As it exits upwards through this chimney it spins a turbine that generates electricity.

Several prototypes versions of this type of solar power generation have been built and show promise. As this technology matures it may gain wider acceptance in addition to PV and solar thermal systems.

Click Here for the Ultimate Guide on How to Generate Your Own Solar Power