subject: Solar Power Uses in Homes and Commercial Buildings [print this page] Solar Power Uses in Homes and Commercial Buildings
Sunlight is used to generate solar power and solar heat and is consumed by appliances, lighting and heating systems.
The system uses photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity. The cells are formed by one or more layers of semiconductor material. When the light hits the cells, it creates a field of electricity between the layers, making the circuit. The greater the intensity of light received, the greater the flow of electricity. The most commonly used semiconductor material in photovoltaic cells is silicon, an element that is found mainly in the sand. Silicon is the second most abundant material on Earth.
The most important part of a solar power system are the cells because they are the generators that receive sunlight. The long series of modules molded together in a single cell, convert electricity into alternating current that is used daily.
Photovoltaic cells are usually crystalline silicon, sliced from ingots or castings.
The performance of a solar cell is measured in terms of efficiency to transform sunlight into electricity. Improving solar cell efficiency while reducing costs is an important objective of the photovoltaic industry.
Electricity Production Plants
This system, connected to the grid, produces large amounts of photovoltaic electricity in a single point. The size of these plants ranges from several hundred kilowatts to tens of megawatts. Some of these applications are located in large industrial or rural areas.
Grid Connection for Homes and Businesses
The grid connected photovoltaic system is the most common installation for homes and businesses in developed areas. The connection to the local electricity network allows the injection and sale of solar power generated and reduces the consumption of electricity created by fossil fuel. Photovoltaic systems use an inverter to convert solar energy from, direct current to alternating current.
Solar Power in Industrial Facilities
The stand-alone solar electricity is often used in the field of telecommunications, especially for connecting remote rural areas to populated areas. In addition, mobile stations fed by photovoltaic or hybrid systems also have a huge potential. Other applications include traffic signal systems, navigational aids, security phones, remote lighting, signs for highway and water treatment plants.
Solar Hot Water Systems:
As for the systems thermal power generation is attractive to industrial breweries, dairies and food industries, paper, textile and chemical hotels, etc. These industries consume large amounts of hot water for their manufacturing processes or services and need solar hot water system that can generate large amounts of hot water. In this case the systems that give the best results are concentrating solar power, like the SolarBeam Concentrator.
Feed In Tariffs for Solar Power
If you install a photovoltaic system in your home, all the electricity generated can be connected to the grid and sold to the electricity supplier at a higher price than it pays out on your monthly bill. This mechanism allows the return of your investment in no time. Also, if you have a SolarBeam Concentrator, that is capable of generating thermal and photovoltaic energy, the benefit is twofold. There is savings on fuel for heating your home and also from selling the solar power to the grid.
However, not all systems on the market have this dual purpose. Solartron Energy systems, which have designed a solar concentrator system called SolarBeam,is capable of providing the solar power and solar hot water. 1 SolarBeam provides 13kwh of thermal energy and up to 3.6kWh of electricity. The photovoltaic module is an upgrade and can be added onto existing solar thermal systems. This way, the upfront cost is reduced, but you still have the option of creating electricity in the future.
Currently, the countries who are having success in the development of PV is Germany. Spain, Italy, France and Greece also have a wide development of this system. Electricity consumers aware of the importance of renewable energy are changing the use of solar energy and receiving financial compensation for the use of these systems.
