Solar Energy Is Used To Generate Electricity

So how do solar panels actually generate electricity.

Solar energy is used to generate electricity. To find out how solar panels work you need to understand how they re made. Electricity produced from sunlight will be a key part of our journey toward sustainable energy in the future. Pondering upon how to use solar energy to generate electricity. Electricity generation is from electric power plants that use a turbine or similar machine to drive electricity generators.

Because pv technologies use both direct and scattered sunlight to create electricity the solar resource across the united states is ample for home solar electric systems. In a turbine generator a moving fluid such as water steam combustion gases or air pushes a series of blades mounted on a shaft which rotates. The solar energy generated by the pv array is direct current dc electricity which cannot be used by many electronic devices or returned to the electrical grid because they use alternating current ac power. However the amount of power generated by a solar energy system at a particular site depends on how much of the sun s energy reaches it and the size of the system itself.

Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity either directly using photovoltaics pv indirectly using concentrated solar power or a combination concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Many solar panels use silicon one of the planet s most common elements. Also solar arrays do not generate a consistent amount of power because of variations in the amount of light hitting the pv cells. As the technology for solar cells gets better and better this form of clean renewable energy will find more applications that take up less space and produce more electricity to meet the energy needs of our homes schools and businesses.

Most solar thermal power systems use steam turbines to generate electricity. In such cells a small electric voltage is generated when light strikes the junction between a metal and a semiconductor such as silicon or the junction between two different semiconductors. Solar energy is one of the most affordable renewable energy sources available today. Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun s energy and make it useable.

As of 2011 the technology produced less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand. Here s the process demystified. Solar energy provided about 2 of total u s. Photovoltaic pv and solar thermal power are the two main types of solar electricity generation technologies.

Solar radiation may be converted directly into electricity by solar cells photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. Pv conversion produces electricity directly from sunlight in a photovoltaic cell. Read right ahead to get to the details.