Solar Power Lights - How Easy Is Simple

If you look up on the Web about solar power lights

, you are sure to find several news items about these devices lighting up remote villages in the earth. You get to know about solar-powered street lighting in South Asia and Africa.

Solar energy is a renewable source with many advantages. Obviously you may think why we continue to use other energy sources such as fossil fuels, thermal power, hydroelectric power, and nuclear power, as all of them have disadvantages of their own.

All these conventional energy sources are harmful to the environment in some manner, chiefly because of the consumption of fuel, coal, water and radioactive matter in generation of energy. But solar power doesn't require consumption of anything from the earth and hence any environmental problem doesn't arise. Also utilizing solar power to generate electricity doesn't affect the sun in any manner.

But why solar power isn't very popular? It's because the technology of generation and storage of electricity sufficient for an entire building is yet to be developed. Also sunlight is very bright only for 8 to 10 hours in a day. So the application of solar-powered electricity is now limited to some particular areas, one of them being street lighting. Solar power lights are a functionally viable and logically sound application of solar energy.

Though solar power lights appear to be same as conventional lights, yet there are several differences. One of them is that they have neither the filaments as those in bulbs, nor the fluorescent coating as in tube lights. They have instead a group of LEDs (light emitting diodes) connected to a photovoltaic cell or solar panel. LEDs are being used as indicators in many electronic appliances and gadgets for a long time. Solar lights have LEDs which are bigger and more powerful, to give out light of more intensity. This intensity will depend on the electricity obtained from the photovoltaic cells.

The working of solar power lights is as follows:

In daytime, electricity is generated from sunlight by the photovoltaic cells and is stored in them. At sundown the generation and storage of electricity ceases. A light sensor provided in the device tracks the decreasing sunlight, and when its intensity falls below a specified level, allows the stored electricity to flow to the LEDs and make them glow.

To put it scientifically, we can say that the light energy of the sun, i.e. solar energy, is converted into electrical energy that is stored in the cells, and this stored electrical energy gets converted again into light energy through the LEDs. So, solar energy is utilized to provide light in night time.

A solar power light can be easily installed by most people. You should ensure full charge of the battery before it is switched on, by exposing the photovoltaic cell or the solar panel to the sun for 2 to"3 days. These lights will operate without any problem when sufficient sunlight is there. The battery has to be replaced in 2 to 3 years, and the LEDs last for 15 to 20 years.

by: Janet Walker

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