What is Solar Energy?

What is Solar Power?

Solar power is the new thing! In this economy, many people are looking to cut costs, and there is a hugely untapped natural resource in the sun. Many consumers are also looking to get “off the grid,” which reduces their dependence in big business electric and gas companies and makes their homes and lives more self-sustainable. This article will discuss how solar power is made, the costs associated with solar power, and why we need to use solar power.

Solar power is the process of converting sunlight into electricity. There are two ways this energy is converted, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power(CSP). In layman’s terms, PV uses huge solar panels and transmits the energy they get from the sun to semiconductors, which are attached to the electric system of a home or business. Concentrated solar power uses lenses or mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays onto one beam of energy, creating a current of electricity. Most of the solar power that we use on a personal level, i.e. solar panels on our roofs or used to heat our pools, are of the PV variety.

Solar power is very cost-effective when done correctly. Large solar power plants are still rare and expensive to build, but that is changing. While it is still pretty expensive to install solar panels on your roof or to build a huge solar power plant, the actual return on investment (ROI) comes right now from minor changes to how you use your electricity. One of the best uses of solar power is from a solar pool heater, which only takes a small solar panel to heat the converters which in turn heat the pool water.The solar panels conduct electricity but use less wattage than an electric heater uses.

Fossil fuels are running out. There is only so much coal, and there is only so much natural gas in the world. Coal is still the cheapest of the fossil fuels, but its use has long been touted for harming the environment and the workers who mine it. With all of the crazy weather that has been going on, floods in the Midwest, tsunamis and earthquakes in Japan, many attribute those weather changes to what we have done to our environment. There is no better time than now to make use of the most abundant natural resource we have – the sun.