I have a research paper due and I have no idea how to answer this question?
Please be Pro Solar Enegy.. I based my whole research on the pro causes of Solar Energy.
I have a research paper due and I have no idea how to answer this question?
Please be Pro Solar Enegy.. I based my whole research on the pro causes of Solar Energy.
Like whsgreenmom, we have a grid tied solar system. During the day, we sell energy to the power company, and at night, they sell it back to us, resulting in a near-zero bill. The power company actually likes this, because we generate electricity on the hot summer days when everybody is running their A/C, and they need extra power the most.
I believe more than 90% of the residential installations today are like ours, without batteries. Generally, if someone has grid power, they stay on the grid. Obviously, there still needs to be grid power, so solar doesn’t completely displace all other forms of generation, it merely supplements.
If you are talking about solar on a home there are 2 options. The system I have is tied to the grid, so when I generate more energy than I use I sell it back to my utility. At night when I can’t produce my own energy I get my electricity from the grid. The other option is off the grid, you would then need a bank of batteries that would charge during the day and store energy for the night.
If you are talking about a large plant then it would be part of a mix of sources, just like it has always been. Nationally we get less than 2% of our energy from renewable sources, in CA we get about 15% from renewable sources. Nationally we get 49% of our energy from coal in CA it is about 15% as well, with the majority coming from natural gas.
Solar ‘photovoltaics’ or ‘PV’ (the panels you normally see) could store energy in batteries or another way: eg someone might build a small hydro station with a pump. They’d pump the water up a hill during the day and let it flow down when it’s needed at night. You can also compress air etc to store energy.
It also helps that demand goes down at night so you need less electricity!
Concentrating solar power, or ‘solar thermal’ power, like these things:
http://newsblaze.com/pix/2007/1122/pix/concentrating-solar-power.jpg
Can store energy as heat. They heat up a salt over the day and it’s still hot at night and you can draw power out like that.
Most pv setups use batteries to store electricity, the few that don’t either accompany the panels with another form of energy generation (normally wind turbine) or it is designed to reduce energy consumption during the day when the bulk of energy is consumed and to be dormant at night.
By using batteries for power storage In your system ,
If not then you have no power at night nor on cloudy days .
>
Stored in power cells and plugged into whatever electricity is
needed for. That’s now.
In the future, the sun lit oarts of the earth will be able to
send power to the unlit part.
When it comes to solar power systems, you need to have two basic components which are a PV panel and a storage system. The function of the PV is to generate electricity and the storage systems are used when you aren’t using all the solar energy generated. In other words, the system stores the electricity for later use.
The storage system will consist of batteries which are placed in a vented room such as a basement. You don’t need to have batteries but they’re recommended for those who want to be completely independent in terms of energy production. Batteries will allow you to do this and they’re the most common way of storing solar energy.
Although batteries are typically used for solar energy storage, there are also two main types to choose from. These are lead acid and nickel cadmium.
Due to their low cost, you will find that lead acid batteries are the most common when storing solar energy. They’re very similar to the type of battery you have in a car. The terminals are positive and negative and they have leads attached to them which contain metal plates that in turn connect to terminals. These plates sit in a solution of sulphuric acid. When there is a reaction between the lead plates and the sulphuric acid you will find that this is how electricity is produced.
This is pretty much how a nickel cadmium battery work too however these batteries are a lot more expensive. The benefit of paying more for these batteries is that they function much better. Not only to the discharge more electric current before they require recharging but they also last a lot longer than lead acid batteries.
Because of the way solar panels work the battery will charge up when the solar panels are not getting any light. This is why they’re so important so that you can still run electrical devices in your home no matter what amount of light is currently hitting the solar panels.
The problem with batteries is that they can become drained or can be overcharged too many times. This why charge controllers are used as they stop this from happening. If the batteries become fully charged the controller prevents any more charging from happening. You will find that lead acid batteries are meant to be discharged at about 50% of their capacity allowing you to extend its life.
Solar panels normally last for about 20 years but batteries only last for about half that time. This is why it’s so important that you understand you need to factor this into the cost of your solar system. Replacing your batteries can be fairly costly and shouldn’t be ignored when making your solar purchase.