SOLAR PANEL (noun) The noun SOLAR PANEL has 1 sense: 1.

electrical device consisting of a large array of connected solar cells PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL (noun) The noun PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL has 1 sense: 1. a cell that converts solar energy into electrical energy SOLAR CELL (noun) The noun SOLAR CELL has 1 sense: 1. a cell that converts solar energy into electrical energy

Definition of 'solar energy'

Princeton's WordNet

1. (noun) solar energy, solar power energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy "the amount of energy falling on the earth is given by the solar constant, but very little use has been made of solar energy" Definition of 'solar energy'

U.S. National Library of Medicine

1. solar energy Energy transmitted from the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation.

What does the future spell for solar panels?

Published date: 03 November 2011 | Published by: Reporter

Changes to Government legislation set to take place on 12 December 2011 mean that the future of solar panel technology will be altered. The changes will see subsidies reduced. These new figures will not affect existing solar panel users, meaning that it is vital households take advantage of current rates and prices before the changes occur. In response to the impending change, solarenergyexperts.co.uk conducted a survey into the trends and opinions held by UK residents over solar panels. This focused on why people were reluctant to invest in the technology whilst also generating data on personal situations. The majority of those interviewed had the most to gain from solar panel installation those in a home with three or more bedrooms with energy bills of more than 40 per month. Most individuals were said to be deterred by the cost of installation and lack of information. However, solar panel comparison services and detailed information is readily available from solarenergyexperts.co.uk and other independent companies.

Solar panel installation Solar panel installation offers users a number of benefits both ecological and economical. The Governments dedication to becoming more reliant on renewable energy has seen them vow that 20% of the total energy generated in the UK will be created using renewable sources by 2020. Figures from 2009 and 2010 have shown that this rate currently stands at 2-3%. Solar panel installation is something which is suitable for all households and customers are not required to get prior permission to install panels. The only exception to this is for individuals who live in a listed building, who must therefore obtain permission from the registry beforehand. Positioning A common misconception over solar panel installation is that it will not be effective in theUK due to a lack of warm weather when compared to other regions. This is pure myth and solar panels are charged by sunlight irradiation, not temperature or direct heat. The positioning of solar panels is therefore crucial in their effectiveness and qualified fitters will make sure that customers get the best solar panels fitted in the most effective way for their homes. Lifespan Solar panels are said to have an estimated lifespan of 25-30 years. The savings which they offer customers mean that their installation cost will have been covered within eight years. This means that net savings will be made for 17-22 years, on average. Cost The cost of installing solar panels has fallen drastically over recent years, one of the reasons behind the Governments changes to the legislation surrounding FITs. The average cost of solar panel installation now totals 9,000, falling from 12,000. Installation fees will include the cost of fitting the panels along with the price of the panels themselves. Savings The savings which are offered to households through solar panel installation can be separated into three categories. The total of these savings amounts to an average annual figure of 1,190. These will be affected by the intended changes to FITs and should therefore encourage consumers to invest in solar panels before 12 December 2011. Generation Tariff The Generation Tariff is responsible for that largest proportion of savings offered to households. This is a FIT that gives financial reimbursements to customers who produce solar energy, regardless of whether they use it. Currently a saving of around 1,060 per year is delivered via this tariff. Export Tariff

The Export Tariff currently accounts for about 40 of annual savings and provides additional payments to households who generate more solar energy than they use. This excess energy is fed back into the grid and customers are given financial payments for this. Energy bills Energy bills have seen a number of increases over recent months, with British Gas kicking off a price hike when they increased their average price for electricity by 16% on 16 August 2011. Other energy providers in the big six then followed suit, leaving households facing higher bills. Energy bills can be reduced by as much as 90 per year through the use of solar panels. This means panels, such as sanyo solar panels, can offer continual savings and are an attractive long-term investment.

Solar Panel and Cell Efficiency. What Does It All Mean?

One of the most frequently asked questions by people researching a solar power system for their home or business is the difference between panel and cell efficiency, both which work to determine the energy production and cost saving benefits of a system. In the solar industry, efficiency refers to the percentage of sunlight energy hitting a cell or panel that is converted into electricity. SunPowers world-record efficiency Maxeon cells, for example, achieve efficiencies of 22.4%, which means they convert 22.4% of the sunlight that hits them into electricity. Solar technology on the market today is available in a range of efficiencies, from about 10% in the lowest efficiency thin film solar panels to SunPowers high efficiency products, which are two to four times more efficient than thin film and up to 50% more efficient than standard efficiency solar technology.

The efficiency of a panel is always lower than the efficiency of the solar cells used in that panel. This is primarily because glass is used to cover and protect the cells in the panel, and glass reflects light, preventing some of the sunlight from reaching the cells.

The example below shows the mathematical formulas for determining how 22.2% efficient cells produce a 20.9% efficient panel: If, by shining 1,000 Watts of light directly onto a number of cells, you generate 222 Watts of electricity, then you can measure the efficiency of the cells to be 22.2%.The formula is 222/1,000 = 22.2%.

Now, what if those 22.2% efficient cells were used in the manufacture of a solar panel, with glass placed over the top of them? If you then exposed that panel to 1,000 Watts of light, approximately 60 Watts of the light will be reflected by the glass, and only 940 Watts of light energy will hit the cells. Since the cells

receive less light, they will produce less electricity. This is the formula for calculating how many Watts the panel will produce: 940 Watts x 22.4% = 209 Watts. Applying the formula in the previous example (209/1,000 = 20.9%), you can determine that the panel is 20.9% efficient. Panel construction, shading, temperature, mounting and positioning are all factors that affect the amount of power generated by an installed solar power system, but high solar cell efficiency helps ensure that the number of kilowatt hours generated by a system is maximized, maximizing the cost savings realized by the system owner.

Here is an informative interview with SunPowers founder and president emeritus Dr. Richard Swanson in which he explains SunPower Maxeon solar cell technology.

Solar Energy Panels

Solar Energy Panels Even though solar energy is thought to be the next best thing to sliced bread we will discuss the advantages of solar energy and the disadvantages of solar energy. These pages will also provide you with how governments use this energy and how consumers can earn grants and tax credits by implementing solar energy in their homes. Solar Energy Panels / What is a Solar Panel? Solar panels are devices that convert light to electricity. These devices are most often referred to as solar panels since sunlight is usually the source of light used to power these devices. Solar panels are arrays composed of multiple solar cells. The amount of energy that individual solar cells trap and generate may be miniscule but when used to make up the arrays called solar panels their combined energy can be immense. Using solar panels to power the average home is eminently viable with the current state of the technology. Powering remote appliances or even a whole household no longer presents insurmountable obstacles. The cost of these alternative energy sources has also been on the decrease because of technological breakthroughs and improved methods of manufacturing. Although powering heavy industry with solar power is not feasible at the present who knows where solar energy will take us in the future.

Solar Energy Panels / What are the Different Types? The two main forms of solar cells that are in use today are solar electricity panels and solar hot water panels. These are two entirely different technologies. Solar water heaters use the heat that is contained in sunlight mainly in the infrared band to heat water. This technology saves the energy that is usually generated by burning fossil fuels and instead uses the sunlight which is free and available in vast amounts.

Some solar hot water heaters are used to generate electricity. The tower of power concept uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and heat a volume of water to turn it into steam which in turn is used to power a turbine that generates electricity. However, the most common application of solar hot water heater is to just supply heated water for home use. The other technology uses light sensitive materials to directly turn any source of light to electricity although the most common and widely available source is sunlight. These cells work because some semiconductor materials can absorb the photons that sunlight is made up of and give off an electron. If enough sunlight falls on enough of these cells then the amount of electrons can add up to a quite respectable amount.

Solar Energy Panels / Crystalline vs Silicon Electricity generating solar cells are further divided into two kinds: crystalline solar panels and silicon solar energy panels. These two kinds are different in the way they are manufactured but otherwise generate electricity when sunlight falls directly on them. Crystalline panels are made by slicing crystalline silicon into extremely small circles and treating them with dopants. A dopant is an impurity element added to a crystal lattice in low concentrations in order to alter the optical/electrical properties of the crystal. This type of treatment is the sunlight sensitive component. They are then arranged in a grid-like order and tightly packed. They are then topped with a thin layer of glass. Silicon panels are arranged in layers instead of next to each other. Silicon solar panels tend to be more efficient and less expensive to make.

What is Solar Energy

What is Solar Energy? For billions of years the sun has been producing vast amounts of power through nuclear fusion. This is the process by which four hydrogen atoms combine to produce one helium atom. This is the mechanism that the sun uses to generate its energy. The amount of energy from the sun that reaches the Earth is vast. All the energy that can be produced by the non-renewable reserves of the world like petroleum, coal, and natural gas is equaled by just twenty days of sunshine. What is Solar Energy / The Power of the Sun If measured outside of our atmosphere the energy that reaches Earth has about 1,300 watts per square meter. This energy is in radiant form and about a third of it is reflected back into space. A certain amount is absorbed by the atmosphere which is the primary cause of weather.

Ultimately the energy that reaches the surface of the Earth averages out to about 1,000 watts per square meter on a cloudless day. Of course some arid and desert areas receive more. This means that on a 24-hour day the energy that reaches earth is equivalent to one barrel of oil every year per square meter. These numbers stand for the maximum energy that reaches the Earth from the sun but current technology allows only a small amount of this energy to be collected and converted to other forms of energy which can be more readily used.

What is Solar Energy / Have we used any kind of Solar Energy before? Solar power has been harnessed by humans since ancient times. The technology that has been used to harness solar energy has been evolving since then. Since the use of the oculus at the Parthenon in Rome daylighting techniques have been used by ancient architects. Natural light has been dominant method in the history of lighting. During the industrial revolution the use of coal had increased steadily and has shifted from wood and other kinds of biomass to fossil fuels. In the 1860s there was the expectation that coal would soon be exhausted as a power source so there was research conducted into solar power. However during the early part of the 20th century the development and research of solar power slowed and stopped because of the increasing availability and cost effectiveness of coal and petroleum at the time. In 1973 during the oil embargo and the 1979 energy crisis there was a review and reorganization of energy policies around the world and especially in the industrialized countries. This brought new life to solar power research and development of solar power technologies. What is Solar Energy / The Future The technologies used in harnessing solar power are on the verge of rapid growth and development in the 21st century. Architects and engineers are increasingly aware of the advantages of building in passive solar power into their designs. The cost of solar water heaters is becoming increasingly competitive with more conventional water heaters in certain areas. Photovoltaic technology is slowly becoming a cheap way of generating electricity. What is Solar Energy / Ending Our Addiction to Fossil Fuel Of course the expansion of solar power industry will encounter some problems but these can be overcome. In spite of difficulties put up by some utilities for grid connected photovoltaic systems there will be increased use of these technologies and solar power will be increasingly crucial in ending our addiction to fossil fuels and fighting the threat of global warming and assuring a future based on renewable and clean energy.

How Solar Panels Work

Solar panels are technically any kind of panel that uses solar thermal energy to produce electricity. There are a variety of panel types, from those used to heat water as with solar hot water panels, to those which are used to store solar energy, such as solar thermal energy panels. Furthermore, a solar panel can be described as a photovoltaic panel, which is what is used in the professional solar power industry to generate electricity from the rays of the sun. Despite the type of solar panel being discussed, almost all solar panels are flat. This is due to the fact that the surface needs to be at a 90 degree angle from the suns rays for optimal configuration.

Photovoltaic panels, the most common form of solar panels in the professional electrical generation industry, are able to absorb energy from the sun through a variety of smaller solar cells on their surface. Much like how a plant is able to absorb energy from the sun for photosynthetic purposes, solar cells behave in a similar fashion. As the photons from the suns rays hit the solar cells on a photovoltaic panel, the energy is transferred to a silicon semiconductor. The photon is then transformed into electricity and then passed through connecting wires to finally enter a power generation facility or battery. The solar cells on calculators and satellites are photovoltaic (PV) cells or simply a group of cells electrically connected and parceled in one frame. Photovoltaics, where photo means light and voltaic means electricity, transforms sunlight directly into electricity. Photovoltaic cells are prepared with particular materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is presently the most generally used. When light hits the Photovoltaic cell, a specific share of it is absorbed inside the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is given to the semiconductor. The energy unfastens the electrons, permitting them to run freely. Photovoltaic cells also have one or more electric fields that act to compel electrons unfastened by light absorption to flow in a specific direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by introducing metal links on the top and bottom of the -Photovoltaic cell, the current can be drawn to use it externally. The Future of Solar Panels The current generation solar panels are extremely inefficient, and can really only harness as much as thirty percent of a sun rays power in the form of usable electricity. This problem is partly due to the materials used in the design of the solar panel as well as the size of solar panel itself. Because of the relatively small range of wavelengths of light that can be harnessed by solar panels, much of the energy which could be gained from the suns light is simply left to waste. Furthermore, if a photon of light hits the solar panel at too high of a speed, the energy will not be properly transferred to the solar panel as usable energy. Modern materials and new techniques for designing solar panels are on the horizon, but promises of increased efficiency have yet to be delivered. The newer silicon crystals that are cheaper to manufacture have the downside that they are not as efficient as the original crystal silicon, but larger panels are cheaper to produce giving a similar or better amount electricity for the same investment. How to Make Solar Panels Solar panels are rather complicated yet very simple at the same time.This can be shown below. Silicon The reason that solar panels are made of silicon is that silicon atoms hold three separate groups of electrons. One group has two electrons, another has eight electrons, and the third has four electrons. Because the third group only has four electrons, it still has four open spots in which electrons from other atoms can fill. When this happens, the silicon atom and the other atoms become bonded together to form a crystalline lattice. Crystalline lattices are important to solar panels because they allow electrons to break away from the structure later on in the process. Doping Doping refers to purposely adding impurities to an element, such as silicon. Doping is a part of the solar panel process because pure silicon is not a very good conductor of electricity. This is because pure silicon forms such a tightly-bound structure that its electrons are no longer able to move freely. By

doping the silicon with an impurity such as phosphorous, which has five electrons in its shell instead of four, there are a lot more free carriers. Free Carriers A free carrier is an electron that has been knocked loose from its atom and is able to move to a different atom, carrying its electric charge with it. Free carriers are caused by overloads from electric forces, such as heat from light energy. In silicon-phosphorous compounds, the phosphorous atoms provide free carriers as each phosphorous atom has one additional electron that is not connected to the silicon atoms. Because there is an excess of electrons in a silicon-phosphorous compound, the silicon atom has a negative charge. As the other side of a solar panel is doped with boron, an element thats shell only has three electrons (a lack of electrons when compared to silicon), it has a positive charge. The negative charge then flows to the positive charge, creating an electric current. Efficiency The average solar panel used in industrial purposes has an efficiency rate of about 12%. The most ground-breaking research in the world has invented a solar panel that has a 40% efficiency rate. While this is good, it is still not as good as scientists would like. That is because 1,000 watts of electricity from the Sun is constantly shining on every square meter on the Earths surface. If scientists could get 100% of that electricity, or close to it, people worldwide would be able to power their homes for free and live much more energy-efficient lifestyles without burning any fossil fuels. Future Solar Panels Future solar panels will, hopefully, be much more efficient and supply much of the worlds energy needs. Future solar panels may cover all roofs, building tops, walls, and cars. There may also be large solar farms where solar energy is collected, such as the vast numbers of solar panels located at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. It is unclear how exactly society will encorporate solar panels into their daily lives but it is clear that solar panels are getting better all the time and they will continue to do so for a long time.