Solar Energy definitions and applications

 Solar energy as a renewable source

Solar energy is one of the renewable energy sources that comes from the radiation of the sun. it is a clean and environmentally friendly energy source. it has a high growing potential in the field of carbon emission reduction globally. 

This article explains and explores all about solar energy, its meaning, advantages, disadvantages, and the main important applications that use solar energy.

Solar Energy

What is the solar energy?

Solar energy is the sun's heat and light radiation. It is the most sufficient and efficient renewable energy in our lives. It could be converted to electricity which secures all needs for life. Also, it could be directly used for heating, lighting, and cooking. 

What are the advantages of solar energy?

• Never run out. The source of solar energy which is the sunlight is continuous and available in most of the earth's areas. The lifetime of the sun is infinite compared to conventional energy sources like coal, oil, and gas.
• Availability and easy to get. You can get sunlight everywhere with no need for mining, handling, and transportation
• No operation cost. After installing the electricity and heat conversion elements, you don’t have to spend any cost which means zero operation costs.
• Minimum or free maintenance. The maintenance of the solar panels which are used to convert solar energy to electricity and the mirror to collect solar lite for heating and cooking is only cleaning.
• Friend to the environment. No pollution or waste comes out from the energy conversion. it has zero carbon emissions or greenhouse gases.

What are the disadvantages of solar energy?

• High initial cost. when generating electricity from solar panels and where the efficiency of the energy conversion from the solar panels is still considered low (Max. value is about 39.46%) that is why  we need a large number of solar panels to achieve the required needed power which increases the initial cost of any solar project
• Large area needed. Because of the low efficiency and the size of the solar panel (The standard size of one 400 watts max solar panel size is 3.25 feet X 5.5 feet), a large-scale project is needed for electricity production.
• low generated bower. for example, the maximum efficiency of the solar cell is about 39.46%
• Reliability. As solar energy depends on a natural source which is sunlight, there is a time that the sunlight is not available like night. That is why some energy storage elements are needed to store the power generated from the solar panels during daylight and store it to be used at night. Also, weather conditions like clouds or shadows can affect the amount of the generated power.

Solar Farm

What are the applications of solar energy?

Electricity generation by solar cells and solar panels. Solar cells are used to generate electricity where a known effect called Photo-Voltaic (PV) is used. A standard solar panel containing 60 cells and produced from 350 to 400 watts. Average number of solar cells is about 72 cells per panel.

1. Electricity generation from solar energy away from solar cells by collecting the sunlight using the concentrating solar power system by mirrors and lenses as well as tracking systems and using it to concentrate the sunlight in a beam to produce steam which is used in steam turbines in the power generation plant to generate electricity. 
2. Heat generation for domestic uses. Solar power is also used in areas that have no facilities at all to produce heat. That heat is used in cooking, water, and space heating.
3. Water desalination. Solar energy is used widely at the water desalination station to convert the seawater to portable drinking water by solar distillation processes.
4. House lighting. Modern equipment was developed to use sunlight through mirrors to increase the light intensity during the daylight to light up the houses. This application saves costs during daylight.

Roof-top solar panels

What is the electricity from solar energy used in?

• Grid-connected projects where large-scale solar farms generate electricity and drive it to the national or international network.
• Water pumping in homes and gardens and also widely used in agriculture in the areas poor or far away from water sources.
• Roof-top solar panels provide houses with their need for electricity
• Cars and vehicles.
• Roads and street lighting
• Small and portable applications like batteries and mobile chargers as well as lighting torches. 

Many developers and researchers, as well as laboratories and companies, are working on Developing the technologies used in harvesting solar energy to optimize it and maximize the energy driven by solar energy. the most important parameter is increasing the efficiency of the solar cell. Solar cell efficiency has a significant impact on the amount of power generated, and the area needed for power plants. The second parameter is increasing the efficiency of the concentration of sunlight by mirrors or lenses to maximize the thermal heat harvested from the sunlight.