Installation of solar panels at home assists you in two ways; one is that you get cheapest energy for your home and second it increases your home value. Modern solar systems are more accurate, efficient and easy to install. Though initially installation of solar panels cost you much, but on long term you really know that your investment won’t go in vain. When the solar panel will be installed, the costs depreciate over time. The system itself adds value to your home. Overall, you get inner satisfaction that you are using clean and non-polluting systems.

Six Things That Makes Solar Energy a Better Choice:

1. Unlike other energy sources like oil, coal, or natural gas, solar energy is a free source.
2. If you sell back the extra electricity to the electric company made by your solar panel, you can have no electric company bill. Read the full story

It’s true that getting a solar panel for your home is an effective way to immediately cut your expenses and get rid of power made from coal plants. Buying a solar panel costs a lot but even then it sounds an economical decision on long run.

Focusing on the fact that average class homeowners can not afford to buy a solar panel, some entrepreneurial companies have started solar panel leasing for interested homeowners.

Rental Companies:

Citizenr’s REnU program is having several advantages over traditional solar panel purchase. The other solar panel releasing companies are:

• FreEner-g is developed initially in Minnesota for serving the Minneapolis/St.Paul Area.
• In Connecticut there is CT Solar Lease.
• Serving for Arizona, California, and Oregon is SolarCity.

How These Companies Work?

Though these companies are having different terms and conditions but the basic thing about leasing solar panels is consistent in each package. To have that rental solar panel for your home needs, you have to deposit initially almost $500-$1,000. You can refund this deposit money at the end of your lease. This is the initial process and after that solar panels are installed at your place, according to your household’s energy needs. Every month you will have to pay the rent to the company that leased the panels. Read the full story

Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced an exciting new bill to Congress last week. The bill defines a plan to install 10 million solar roofs and 200,000 solar water heaters over the next 10 years through tax rebates and incentives. According to the bill, the installations would equal 30 GW of clean energy or the equivalent of 30 nuclear power plants.

The act, which is being called the “10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act” would be an addition to the success of other state incentive programs like those in California and New Jersey.

By providing tax rebates, which will make the cost of new systems almost half, the act would also ensure that the receivers of the incentives also know how to make their buildings as efficient as possible.

Having dished out plenty of solar power info, I got to think whether or not the majority of people are even unaware of the brains behind the project, the Solar Panel? Whatever the metaphor, lets familiarize us with the photovoltaic physical workings of this super hero enigma.

How They Do And What They Do?

As mentioned, the principles of photovoltaic physics are used to convert the energy of the sun in to electricity rather than just heat. Now the impressive scientific stuff has been duly noted, let me paint a much simpler picture.

Solar cells are not made using pure silicon but instead have impurities added to it. Why? Because pure silicon crystals are non reactive in a stable state, which is not good as the electrons need some form of instability to be productive. So in this context some impurities must be required.

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Solar cells or photovoltaic semiconductors are the most easy and cheap way to charge small batteries. Making a solar battery charger is inexpensive and provides savings in the future from the cost of new batteries.

Here are some simple steps for building a solar charger:

Step 1

For charging a AAA battery it’s necessary that solar panel must generate more than 1.5 volts in direct sunlight. Smaller solar panels can not do this on their own, for they should be soldered in a series to boost the output voltage. For connecting them in series wire the positive lead of the first panel to the negative lead of the second panel. Continue this procedure until the output voltage gets higher enough.

Step 2

Last positive lead must be connected one side of the diode and other side will be wired to the positive terminal of the battery. The small plastic battery holder makes it easy to change the batteries out once charged. Remaining positive and negative leads will be solder to the terminals on the holder. When it will be completed then the circuit will be having chained solar panels to the battery holder, if more than one panel is required.

Step 3

Build the entire solar array on the wood board to give it a solid surface. For fixing each panel on the wood apply a small amount of glue at back of each panel and while affixing them on wood don’t press them hard because solar panels are glass.

Step 4

On final step place the battery in the holder and put the entire apparatus into direct sunlight. One battery charging time will be proportional to the output voltage. For instance is solar panel array puts out 3 volts, then the battery may charge to 95% in eight hours and if out is doubled then it might take only 3 to 4 hours.

Tips and Precautions

While using electricity and soldering wear proper protection equipment and you must be having proper ventilation while soldering.

Never try to connect solar panels in “parallel”, or positive-to-positive.

Active Solar Heating

Active solar heating main purpose is to use the solar cells to collect and absorb solar radiation. The radiation is converted into heat by solar cells and then its transferred to the interior of the building. Active solar heating works in two ways.

First way is through solar liquid heating. Solar heating usually warms water or antifreeze through the use of solar cells. Then the liquid is pumped into home and heats it via radiators. In some cases same method is used to heat pools.

Second method of active solar heating is solar air heating. Solar panels warm the air then that air is pumped into home through a forced air pump. Active solar heating systems are usually designed in such that that they meet 40 to 80 percent of a home’s heating needs, as less than 40 percent is not cost effective and more than 80 percent usually requires the use of too many solar cells.

Passive Solar Heating

Warming the building by using natural sunlight is called Passive Solar heating. Homes that use passive solar heating usually have large windows facing southwards. The home which use passive solar heating they are well insulated and often have overhangs over the windows to keep the home cool when sun is at its highest. Passive solar homes also take advantage of insulated curtains and windows to minimize heat loss.

Solar Electric System

To absorb solar radiation a solar electric system uses photovoltaic cells. These photovoltaic cells are semiconductors. Electrons are loose out when the cells absorb sunlight this is called photoelectric effect. Then free electrons move to circuit where they form an electrical current. Cells are connected to form panels and each panel creates 10 to 300 watts. Usually a building or home haves several panels for its power supply. The panels are fixed in a specific angle, or panels are having tracking device to maximize power for a day. Solar panels can stand-alone or can be hooked up to the power grid. There several solar array systems in the southwest that supply the electric grid.

The Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM is working towards developing microscopic solar cells, that have the potential to utilize solar power in a unique way.

The minute cells are one-tenth the thickness of traditional solar cells and can be attached to flexible backings, which can be mounted onto any odd-shaped object such as buildings, clothing, or even camping tents, thus using solar power wherever the sun shines.

The tiny cells, which are being described as “glitter-sized,” have been made from crystalline silicon. It is expected that they will eventually be cheaper to make and more efficient than the currently used photovoltaic collectors. Moreover, using the present manufacturing facilities, these cells can be made using far less silicon than traditional solar cells, producing with less waste.

Even thinner than the human hair, the chips have the capability to perform with the same efficiency as conventional cells, that are ten times thicker.

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There are various environment friendly and renewable energy resources available that offer alternate source of energy and help to nullify the effects of certain forms of pollution. All these power generation techniques can be described as renewable because they are not reducing the quantity of any resources to create the energy.

Here is a list of the top 10 renewable energy resources.

# 1 – Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is obtained through any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei through controlled nuclear reactions. Currently,  only fission nuclear method is used, though other methods might one day include nuclear fusion and radioactive decay.

The reactors heat up the water to produce steam, which is then converted into mechanical work for the purpose of generating electricity or propulsion.

Fourteen percent of the world’s electricity is produced by nuclear energy. U.S. , France, and Japan together account for 56.5% of nuclear generated electricity.

439 nuclear power reactors are in operation around the world in 31 countries. According to the figures of World Nuclear Association during 1980s one new nuclear reactor starts up in every 17 days on average, and this ratio will increase till 2015 up to one reactor every 5 days.

France gets cleanest air than any other industrialized country because of nuclear power, and also cheapest electricity in all of Europe. For reducing mass and making more energy France reprocesses it nuclear waste.

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A solar water heater utilizes the sun’s energy instead of electricity or gas in order to heat water, hence resulting in lower monthly utility bill. Once installed correctly, solar water heaters are far more economical and cost effective as compared to heating water with electricity, dedicated heat pumps, heat recovery units or propane.

There are three kinds of solar systems that are commonly used. These include, pumped, integral collector storage (ICS) and thermo-siphon. The direct circulation system transfers potable water from the water storage tank through one or more collectors and back into the tank.

The solar collector is the key element of the solar heating system. It is basically a metal box which has insulation and a black absorber plate. The purpose of it is to gather solar radiation and heating the water. The circulating pump operates with the help of an electronic controller, a common appliance timer, or a photovoltaic (PV) panel.

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In order to develop lower-cost, semiconductor materials for solar cells, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Dow Chemical Company have agreed to join together in a four-year contract.

The $4.2m project will aim at exploring the earth-abundant materials for solar-energy applications.

Initially, the focus will be on direct-bandgap semiconductor materials that make use of less costly and commonly available elements, that offer lower cost than those used in today’s thin-film photovoltaic (PV) semiconductors.

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Photovoltaic (PV) cells consist of two semi-conductor layers. One layer containing attracting positive charge, the other attracting negative charge.

Photons are those small particles of solar energy that are emitted by sunlight. Photons that are emitted by sunlight are then engrossed by the solar cells.

Once sufficient photons are attracted towards the negative layer of the photovoltaic cell, they transfer automatically to the positive layer. This happens because the manufacturing process of a positive layer is designed in such a manner.

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