Solar energy is the energy which comes from sunlight, since thousands of years this energy is being used by people in different ways all over the world i.e. heating, cooking, and drying. In today’s world it is being used to generate electricity power as well. There are many remote parts in the world, where power supply can not be supplied using other medium, solar power is being using in those areas to fulfill the power requirements.
Application of Solar Energy
Although there are many direct use of solar energy we are using from many years, there are variety of appliances today that can work using solar energy. these product are called solar appliances. Lets look at the application of solar energy in different sectors
Residential Application
Use of solar energy for homes has number of advantages. The solar energy is used in residential homes for heating the water with the help of solar heater. The photovoltaic cell installed on the roof of the house collects the solar energy and is used to warm the water.
Solar energy can also be used to generate electricity. Batteries store energy captured in day time and supply power throughout the day. The use of solar appliances is one of the best ways to cut the expenditure on energy.
Industrial Application
Sun’s thermal energy is used in office, warehouse and industry to supply power. Solar energy is used to power radio and TV stations. It is also used to supply power to lighthouse and warning light for aircraft.
Remote Application
Solar energy can be used for power generation in remotely situated places like schools, homes, clinics and buildings. Water pumps run on solar energy in remote areas. Large scale desalination plant also use power generated from solar energy instead of electricity.
Transportation
Solar energy is also used for public transportation such as trolleys, buses and light-rails.
Pool heating
Solar heating system can be used to heat up water in pool during cold seasons.
How solar panel work
A solar panel is the series of small cells which is called photovoltaic cell, which generates electricity directly from visible lights by means of the photovoltaic effect. In order to generate useful power, it is necessary to connect a number of cells together to form a solar panel, also known as photovoltaic module. The nominal output voltage of a solar panel is usually 12 volts and they may be used singly or wired together into an array. The number and size required is determined by the available light and the amount of energy required.
Solar panel transform the light energy in to electrical energy. The electrical energy from the solar panel is direct current or DC electricity, so it can be used by several decides that run on DC electrical power.
Working model of Solar Energy
I have created a small module below, which shows how solar energy can be converted to Mechanical energy (rotation of motor), sound energy (buzzer sound) and light energy (glowing of LED).
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