Loading ...Solar Panels
Preet Shah
Solar power is when solar panels are set up to capture the Sun’s rays and transfer them into electricity. The solar cells are made of silicon and are lined with electrons. The solar ray hits the electrons and the electrons move freely inside the solar panel. Then it to what ever it is connected to and powers it. The solar ray’s electron then takes place of the electron. And the process repeats.
Solar energy has been used since the Earth was created. It was used to make rain which made the oceans. Plants use it to make food and animals use to make vitamins. Yes this is a little ambiguous.In the early 1700s people used to magnify the Sun’s rays so that it would burn wood. Solar power can be used to heat things our houses, the water in our houses, the food in a solar cooker, and so on. This is called solar thermal energy. The second basic way we can use solar energy is to turn light from the sun directly into electricity, using solar panels. This is called photovoltaics.
When the sun stops shining on your solar panel, its electrons stop moving and electricity stops flowing. People attach batteries. The batteries are big, heavy, rectangular boxes, sort of like car batteries. Electricity from a solar panel flows into attached batteries while the sun shines, and then the stored electricity in the batteries can be used at night, or when the sun is behind the clouds. Solar panels are attached to batteries, so signs stay lit at night. Little solar panels are used on solar calculators (the panel is usually in a little strip across the top). You might have seen solar panels on people’s roofs or on poles in front of their houses. And in space? You know those flat, black “wings” that stick off satellites and space stations? Solar panels.
You need many panels to power a whole house, though. The first thing you’d have to do, before you “went solar,” would be to cut down on your electricity use. Otherwise you’d need so many panels that it would no longer be articulate to buy them and you’d have no room outside, because everything would be covered in solar panels. The average size of a solar system that completely powers a house is 2,000 watts.That’s not many power–just enough to run 20 or 30 light bulbs. (Except that if you were going to run your house off solar panels, you wouldn’t use the same old light bulbs you’ve been using, that mostly make heat and just a little bit of light. You’d use super-efficient, long lasting florescent light bulbs.) To make 2,000 watts of power you need solar panels that are about 24 feet long by 10 feet high. That’s about as long as one and-a-half cars and a little higher than most of your ceilings. That’s still many panels. But once you get them up, they last for well over 20 years. And since they have no moving parts, they almost never break.
Solar plants are usually in hot, dry places, like deserts in California. Many different countries are planning to build more soon. There are basically two different kinds of solar energy power plants. One kind makes electricity using lots and many solar electric panels. The other actually makes electricity using the sun’s heat–solar thermal energy. Basically, solar thermal power plants use many mirrors to focus the sun’s rays onto one central area. That heat is used to boil water, and then the steam produced from the boiling water is used to make electricity–just like in a coal or natural gas burning power plant. Solar power will one day ascend power.
Sources
http://www.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm