What is a Solar Panel?

In the worldwide, we heard that we should need to save the planets. But no one concerned about the wastage of electricity. You may not know that there are still many parts in the whole world that they don’t even know about the power. Then how could we think that power had reached each corner of the earth? But still, in other parts, humans are wasting it. So to overcome this problem, the alternative solution has been developed and that is Solar Energy. Solar energy is used by means of the solar panels that convert the light into electricity. It is a device also known as a photovoltaic cell that generates electricity, which can be used in residential areas as well as commercial fields. They are called “Solar Panels” because they used the most abundant source of light available is Sun, also titled ‘Sol’ by astronomers. In short, it is basically a future source of electricity that will enlighten your home with lights.

Why Solar Panels came into existence?

We all know that power had come into existence in the early 1900’s. When it started, there was not much demand for it, as people didn’t use it too much. But by the time, the demand was increased as the electric appliances came into existence and people have started to use it in their homes. Today, everything works with electricity such as Ac’s, TV’s, trains, etc., In fact, we can’t think a bit to live without the electricity. So to fulfill the demand of electricity, we have to find other ways to produce it. And, the solar energy is the perfect example to accomplish the shortage of electricity. The time has come to make the solar panels as much as possible, as everything works with electricity which can be the cause of our problems to the plants, although what a better solution can found than pure energy taken from the sunlight without polluting our environment and also save money from our pockets.

How do Solar Panel Works?

As we discussed earlier that solar panels contain photovoltaic cells, also known as solar cells, built of semiconductors (such as silicon) that performs the main function of converting sunlight into electricity. Whenever light strike on the panel and reaches to the solar cells, the electrons are detached from their corresponded atoms and pass through the cell and that is the cause of generating electricity. These days by reason of the advancement of technology and research, solar cells are growing more refined. Solar cells that are mostly used in domestic areas are able to convert about 20% of the sunlight they collect into electricity, whereas some of the commercial arrangements can even reach 40% of the allegedly solar performance. With the advancing technology, solar panels make advanced. Researchers are trying to make better its efficiency while keeping the price low.

Why solar panels are preferred?

Solar panels are gaining popularity in the many parts of the world as it is becoming affordable and easier to generate. People also are getting aware of the renewable sources and act smartly to protect the environment. Find out how you can be smarter with our reasons to choose solar panels.

1. High savings: It is a long-term investment that rids you from the electricity bill. The daily use of electricity is highly expensive than solar panels. It is a good saving for you. You can generate the power by yourself by own selves rather than to buy it from suppliers.
2. Renewable Energy Source: Solar energy is one of the most real sources of renewable sources. As it uses energy directly from sunlight, it can't be deteriorating. So it remains last long for years till the sun is there. The most advancing technologies will continue to harness the energy in easier, cheaper ways to make it the fastest growing.
3. Business: Now it is easy that you can also start your business by using solar energy. You can easily sell electricity to your neighbors or friends or any one of you want. You can also sell the electricity to the grid. This is kind of making your investment a real better.
4. Feed tariff scheme: If you are a dweller of U.K. you get paid for generating your electricity as per the Feed tariff scheme.
5. Environment-Friendly: The solar panels are highly efficient for the environment because they are designed in such a way that they use sunlight to produce electricity which is a renewable source and like other sources, they don’t emit carbon. So that allows you to cut back on your carbon footprint.
6. Easy replacement: If you have owned a conventional heating system then it is easy to replace this system with a solar panel.
7. Long lifespan: With the proper care and maintenance, these solar panels can remain last for up to 25 years and even more. That all rely upon your attention towards it. This is more reliable as it is one-time spending, but overall it is more beneficially.
8. Property value: Solar panels are a very good investment for your homes. According to the present trend, a home with the solar panel has higher rates in the market than the others.

Types of solar panels used in these days:

Different types of solar panels serve different functions and needs. Several decades of research work lead to a wide range of different types of a panel that are available in the market. They can be distinguished on the basis of generations, their locations, and have single or multi-junctions.

The classification by generation focuses on materials and efficiency of the different types of solar panels. Below are some descriptions of its types.

1st generation Solar Panels:

They are traditional types of solar panels made up of monocrystalline and polysilicon

• Monocrystalline Solar Panels: This type of solar panels are the purest, which can be easily recognized from the uniform dark looks and rounded edges. The purity makes them have the high-efficiency rates, high power output, occupy less space and lasts the longest. In addition to this, they tend to be slightly less affected by the temperature.
• Polycrystalline Solar Panels: This type of panels have the blue, speckled look along with square edges. They are made by melting raw silicon, which is a cheaper and faster process but has the lower efficiency, lowers out space, and a shorter lifespan. They are affected by temperature to a high degree.

2nd Generation Solar Panels:

These panels are made up of different thin film solar cells and are mainly used for photovoltaic stations.

• Thin-film Solar cells: These types are easiest to produce and are manufactured by placing one or more films of photovoltaic materials onto a substrate. They are flexible and less affected by the temperature. The main problem is that they take up a lot of space which makes them unsuitable for the residential installations.
• Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells: It is one of the solar panels that is used in the pocket calculators. They use the tripled layer technology, one of the best of thin film variety. With the lowest efficiency nearly to 7%, they are less expensive in comparison to others.

3rd Generation Solar panels:

These panels use organic or inorganic substances to generate electricity. They include almost all thin variety of technologies but some still are in the developing phase.

• Biohybrid Solar Cells: They are still in the development phase and the idea behind a new technology is to take benefit of photosystem and thus follow the natural process of photosynthesis. They are 1000 times more efficient than 1st generation solar panels.
• Cadmium Telluride Solar Cell: From all of the above, it is the one that uses the least amount of water for the production. This panel uses CdTe which enables the production of solar cells at a low rate and have a shorter payback time.
• Concentrated PV Cell: They are more efficient than others due to its features: Curved Mirror surfaces, lenses and cooling system used to bundle the sunrays and many more that make these panels more proficient.

List of solar panels on the basis of their efficiency rate:

Applications of Solar Panels:

Every product is developed to perform a specific task and so the solar panels. With the new techniques, solar panels are recognizing in the whole world for its advantages. Now, some people are aware to reduce the wastage of electricity and use solar panels to save nonrenewable sources. Here are some applications that may help you to choose solar panels over other mediums to produce electricity.

• Solar-pumping: The water pumping is used in the irrigation at the time of hot sunny days which coincides with the increased solar radiations at that time. Thus it is very beneficial for the one to use solar pumping, in which the power generated by solar panels is used for pumping water.
• Solar Heating of Buildings: Large Solar panels can be used to heat the building directly by windows or by some solar storage devices that heat the building when it required. In the later process, when the building requires heat, the storage devices transfer through fans, ducts, etc. and warms the building.
• Solar Distillation: In the coastal areas, where the scarcity of water is abundant, the solar energy can be used to convert saline water into the distilled water by the method of solar-distillation. In this method, solar radiation passes through cover, absorbed and then converted into heat in the blackened surface causing water to boil. Then vapors condensed to form purified water.
• Solar Cooking: As we seen, the various fuels like coal, gas, and animal-dung are used for cooking but due to an energy crisis, they can’t be wasted for cooking purposes. These necessities the use of solar panels, that produce the electricity which can be used for cooking purposes.
• Solar Thermal power plant: In this, solar energy is converted into electricity via thermal energy. Firstly, solar energy is used to heat up gas, fluid, water by solar panels and then that energy is used to convert into electricity with the help of a turbine or generator

These are some applications which can attract you to set solar panels in your homes, office etc. to save your money.

In conjunction with all this, solar Power Satellite is built in high orbit that uses microwave transmission to focus solar power to the antenna on earth where it can be used in conventional sources. This shows that researchers are trying to use solar energy to a greater extent so that the deteriorating sources can be saved. In the end, it can say that Sun is the powerful source of energy that is helping our plant by giving clean and reusable energy which can be used in many ways to power our world. Although the use of energy is free and does not create any type of pollution, so it is up to us, how wisely we use this renewable source of energy and make our world better.