What countries use solar power?
Many countries employ solar power, particularly in Europe and the European Union (EU). There are many incentives from the governments of Germany and Italy to expand the uses of solar power. Germany leads the world in the amount of solar power installed. China is among the largest manufacturers and users of solar. Solar is never the main energy source in any country. But solar power can play the critical role in providing clean, pollution free, and reliable power to much of the world. The USA is also adopting solar power as many States have incentives to install solar and photovoltaic (PV) panels. This is a positive trend that will continue to grow very rapidly.
What is the future of solar energy?
It is an important energy source now and will be for the future. However, even if we blanket all our cities with solar energy, it will not take care of all our energy needs. Not even close. The panels that you see on the buildings now only cover a percentage of your electric bill. But not enough to cover the entire bill because we simply just use too much. Currently we still use mostly coal as our main source of energy because burning coal is cheap and plentiful. We still have at least a hundred years worth of coal supply. More than oil that's for sure. Nuclear energy is not a solution because you seen the disaster in Japan, not to mention Chernobyl. Plus all the waste is just sitting somewhere contaminating that area for thousands of years. Not clean at all. The future will be solar because eventually owning a system will be necessary as energy prices continue to go up. But it cannot be our only solution. We need to develop more efficient equipment that uses less energy. We need to conserve more energy (the easiest and cheapest way). We need use more public transportation to lessen the load on the grid. Energy definitely will be the most important topic as prices continue to go up. It's what makes the world run.
What are the benefits of using solar energy equipment?
One of the biggest benefits of having a solar energy system is they require minimal care. Since there are no moving parts, solar panels and their installation experience minute amount of degradation with time. It was expected that solar panels lose around 1% of effectiveness per annum. With advancements in manufacturing technology, their life expectancy has improved even more. Modern generation solar panels are expected to maintain up to 92% efficiency even after 20 years.When you set up your solar panels, you may have an arrangement with your utility company to show how much energy you’re sending back to their grid. However, this provides no indication about the energy output of your panels. The solution is to install an energy monitor. There are different types of technologies that enable energy consumption.Solar energy is cost effective which liberates you from the guilt of leaving a carbon-foot on this earth. Solar energy systems not only are a cheaper solution, but also don’t let you contribute in global warming. That is why the government too realises your conscious efforts and give you tax benefits on the installation of Solar Energy Systems.Solar Energy Systems Florida is a wonder. Sun will shine forever and therefore this is a never-ending source of energy. Sunrays are absorbed by solar panels and are converted into usable electricity with the help of photovoltaic cells and invertors.
What are all of the benifits and risks of using solar energy?
There are many pro's and con's but the average green warrior moron will simply say GO Green...with out actually considering what they are saying. For instance, were you to have a solar system, chances are, its going into an already existing home, meaning it will be a retro fit. That means either re-wiring your house for low voltage appliances and devices, OR you have to get a converter, since solar cells give DC voltage, you will need a DC to AC converter. You will also need a battery bank, since you obviously will want power once the sun goes down, which means you will also need a regulator since there are specifications on all the regular appliances in the house. That's also assuming you have a southern exposure to the sun uninterrupted by tree's or structurs to place the solar cells. These solar panels also cost a pretty penny, meaning if you go for an "off the grid" kind of living, you will have a big bill in the neighborhood of $25,000 Plus or Minus depending on your electricity use, routines, and how large the home is. But now the problems. Most whole house systems don't actually pay for themselves. So you will end up with financing a large project, but then have no problem living off the grid.....UNTIL..... Say a solar panel starts dropping in efficiency....maybe its due to wear, maybe its just the panel needs to be cleaned. Then there's always the chance that some of your batteries will not hold a charge well. Maybe the regulator burns up or the DC to AC converter blows. And i'm pretty sure there's no overnight store, opened 24/7 with panels and parts to make instant repairs. Assuming you did the repairs yourself. Otherwise, you'll have to call up a repair person and set a schedule. Can you do without electricity in the house until then ? If your lucky, the repair will be under warrantee. I have heard recently of Solar City whom claim they will install a system and charge you about what you pay for electricity each month without any down, but I haven't looked into it, and for me, Since I pay only about $45 a month for electricity, it doesn't pay for me to get a full system.
Why aren't public schools powered by solar energy yet?
Cost is number one but there are new types of collectors coming out all the time and they will get cheaper. A synthetic diamond has been created that may lessen the demand for silica and lower its price. Or, number one there has not been a viable champion for the cause. Perhaps the students and teachers can have a concrete educational experience and create their own systems. Learning from books is only 1/4 of the basic learning techniques. As for the paperwork, a lot of adminstrators give themselves gold stars for creating useless paperwork, Various levels of govt demand more and more reports that saddle teachers with more administration garbage instead of letting them teach. I know of one small group of teacher that felt it necessary to hire a temp secretary to do the damn reports. What about windmills catching them sea breezes. All you need for a windmill is any motor. A motor run backwards/cross wired becomes a generator. And you need a device that can turn a shaft. I bought a round roof vent for $5 at a garage sale and used sideways it turns like a race car. You need a battery to catch and store the dc charge and recently at Ace hardware I bought a dc to ac converter for 10$. Very good ones can be had for a little over a c-note. Don't wait for administrators, govt and such to do the job do it yourselves. you can do anything if you call it a science, math, environmental project and give a note to Popular Science and maybe they will get interested. A lot of high level people are appointed to jobs or get onto ballots because they are of the same club (skulland bones for instance) and not because they are creative thinkers and doers. You are the resource.
What are the uses of solar energy in industry?
Solar energy as, solar energy or electricity produced from sunlight?If the latter, then no special use. It is just same as electric power generated from any other source.If the former, then numerous uses exist. Heating up via light concentration, evaporation, natural drying, photo-catalytic lighting, daylight(industries, have elaborate systems to bring sunlight inside the factories, in order to save on electric bill during the day.
I want to install solar powered system just to power 1 ton a.c in my house 24*7?
After having a glance at last month's electricity bills, even I too had similar thoughts.Refrigerator in my home consume less than 200W and 1.5 tonne A/C will consume close to 1700W. We can't do much to reduce the power consumption of Air-Conditioners after all its a hell lot of job to remove all the heat from the room & it require lot of energy.We can use Solar Energy on two waysDirect use of solar energy for refrigeration process.Using solar cell for producing electric power.Direct use of solar energy for refrigeration process:-There are solar Air-Conditioners available in the market, and most of them work in tandem with conventional compressor setup. The difference between the solar air conditioning system and a conventional system is how the vapour is changed back into a liquid state in the refrigeration cycle, Solar air conditioning system uses solar thermal energy as an energy source to help maintain the refrigeration process which in turn reduces the amount of electrical energy required to run the compressor.I think this method will have lot of future and maybe combination of solar energy and electric power in cost effective way could replace the existing technologies.Using solar cell for producing electric power:-It's a well known topic, solar cells producing electrical energy and using that energy to power appliances. It's already in use, but the problem is for powering an A/C, the entire solar appliances will cost 8 times the cost of A/C & if you ask that's not worth it. In the environment POV, it's a good thing, but in investment perspective it's not that good, otherwise the Solar energy should be cost effective.Solar power is not that stable, it change according to climate and will not be available in night time, still solar energy seems to be the future.
Why isn't solar energy used more often?
It's gangbusters in Germany [so much for the cloudiness non-issue], and China [so much for the "too expensive" non-issue.] The reason is political: Big Fossil Fuel is still profiteering from coal and oil and lobby to stop any subsidies for alt energy while they themselves get huge subsidies of taxpayer $. -=-=- “…a fraudulent, anti-science campaign funded largely by Big Oil and Big Coal has blocked Congress from passing any clean energy or climate bill” — but “the Navy and Marine Corps just didn’t get the word,” they’re going green. ---Tom Friedman http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/opinio...
What are the possible benefits of Solar energy on the environment?
Well nature has its way to restore itself But if people switch to solar PV there would be considerable drop in CO2 emissions which is one of the main reason for global warming.On the other hand, most of the parts of India still don’t get electricity, so if people with some spendable money shifts to solar PV the extra power available could be given to such electricity deprived areas.Above mentioned are very broad benefits but if we take it for Individuals benefits you may consider following pointers.one time investment, 25 to 30 year free energyNo maintenance as such (all equipments are static in nature)Dependency on greed decreases