How Solar Energy Works – Everything to Know

Do you know how solar energy works actually? Some people do not care too much on how solar energy works and it may happen on you too. Nevertheless, it will be very useful to know how solar energy works for humans.

Solar power is probably the cleanest and most viable form of renewable energy. The advantages of solar energy beats any other form of energy that depletes the natural resources of our planet and pollutes the environment. People of early civilizations have used this eternal source of natural power. They were familiar with how solar energy works at that time.

As the concern about the future of more conventional power sources grows, scientists are once again shifthing to solar power for running profitable and household activities. A better understanding of how the solar energy works is being combined with technological innovations in order to arrive at an affordable way of using energy from the sun for supporting life on earth.

Passive and Active Use of Solar Energy

The classic example of human understanding of how solar energy works can be seen in particularly designed buildings that face south (facing north in case of locations in the southern hemisphere). This allows maximum solar light and the associated heat to enter the building while minimizing the same in summer.

This kind of cleverness in architecture has come to be known as passive solar design for buildings. A more active use of solar energy is made by creating particular kinds of material-called solar heat collectors-for gathering and holding solar energy. To get solar radiation, these collectors are located in the open place, mostly on the building’s roof.

Solar Heating Systems

Specifically designed lenses and mirrors are used for concentrating sunrays on a particular point or object so as to heat it up. Concentrated solar rays can generate a temperature as high as 3000 Celsius. Examples of such relatively simple heating systems include parabolic dishes parabolic troughs and central receivers. From a commercial point of view, parabolic troughs have so far been most victorious, especially in the American state of California.

Solar Electricity

Technology of photo electricity is the result of modern understanding of how solar energy works. The example of it is the electricity which is produced by sunlight. In 1839, a French scientist Edmund Becquerel reported the first observation of electric current produced in a substance by incident sunlight. Later, in the 1950s, Scientists at the Bell Laboratories invented Photovoltaic cells.

These cells were made of silicon and could change a small part of solar radiation directly into electrical energy when sunlight falls on their surface. These PV cells have been enhanced both in terms of affordability and efficiency commercial over the periods.

In general, commercial and scientific projects generally use PV technology. Nevertheless, PV technology is lately used for using solar energy at homes. Since the understanding of how solar energy works increase in the world, new means of utilizing solar energy is needed for supporting life of human being on earth.

Does that answer your question? For further explanation about how solar energy works, you can find the complete guide here!