Introduction To Solar Energy : Part 1

A renewable energy source is the key to clean energy case and that's where solar energy engineering comes in. Solar energy engineering is the key to making solar power system work. It is an intricate machines that convert sunlight into electricity.

This blog or upcoming blog posts is for those who are engineers, technicians and those who are interested in electrical, electronics and related field. In this blog series I'll be your guide to a money saving, time saving in your upcoming projects. Before we start the exact Solar Power Engineering And Technology we discuss some of the important terminologies associated with this.

What is energy and power?

Energy defines as the ability to do work. The work output depends on the work input and power is nothing but the energy can transferred or transformed. The unit of power is watt (W).

What is the unit of energy?

In science we use joules (J) as the international System of Units of energy. A joules tells you how much energy work was done. It is the scientific way to measure energy.

The commercial unit of energy is kilo-watthour (kWh). Typically one unit is another way of saying one kilo-watthour.

The electricity we used is generally charged in units of electricity. 1 unit is 1 kilo-watthour. So, the 1 kilo-watthour (the billing unit) is the product of watt (rate of use) and time (how long you use it). The 1 kilowatt is equal to 1000 watts and if we multiply it with time it becomes watt into time, that may be in hour, minute or second.

Think of watts as the speed at which you are spending your energy. A 100 watt light bulb uses energy slower than a 1,000 watt heater. Just like paying an EMI of a loan in an installments takes longer than paying it all at ones.

How do we calculate unit?

If we have to define unit generation then we need to multiply watt with hour. For example 1 kwh capacity of a rated inverter switched on for 6 hours then what is the consumption of electricity? So, 1 kilowatt is the rated power multiply it with 6 hours, the answer is 6 kilo-watthour.

Consider 1 kilo-watthour means 1 unit cost is 10 rupees. Then amount of money required will be how much? So, it will be 6 kilo-watthour (6 unit) multiplied by 10 which will be equal to rupees 60. So, these 60 rupees we have to spend if we have to run the inverter for 6 hours.

Another ex. if 50 watt rated ceiling fan operates for 5 hours per day, then what will be the electricity consumption? So, calculate 50 watt multiplied by 5 hours and the answer is 250 watthour. If we have to convert it into kilowatt then it will be 0.25 kilo-watthour. Multiply 0.25 kwh with 10 rupees and the answer is 2.5. So, money spend will be 2.5, which will be in rupees. So that will be in per day, that much of money will be spend if we operate the ceiling fan for 5 hours.

So, that way you can calculate the amount of energy requirement to run a particular electrical utility.

What are common forms of energy?

There are different forms of energy which are given below.

• Thermal Energy

Thermal energy can convert mechanical energy by using heat engine. These thermal energy can be categorized into 3 primary groups based on the temperature ranges. The first category is high temperature from 500 to 1000 d C or above. Second category is 150 to 500 d C and the third category is for low temperature from 80 to about 150 d C.

• Chemical Energy

In fuels and organic matter contains chemical energy and exothermic heat reaction releases heat energy. Sometimes we can directly convert chemical energy into electricity by using different kinds of fuel cells such as PEM fuel cell, proton exchange membrane fuel cell, solid oxide fuel cells. These fuel cells is operate at different temperature. We can also convert chemical energy to thermal energy by using combustion route.

So, there are different types of energies we can use such as wind energy, hydro energy and nuclear energy also. These energy we can convert into electrical energy because electrical energy is the high grade energy and more than 40% energy distribution in the world is met through electrical supply system.

Aristotle is the first man who describe the concept of energy. He has given one statement like "It is clear that there is some difference between ends, some ends are energeia means energy, while other are products which are additional to the energeia"

The James Watt invented the steam engine in 1785. The invention of steam engine brought the industrial revolution. After that many more mechanical devices were developed including internal combustion engine. So, this era from 1785 to 1888 the time when Nikola Tesla discovered internal combustion engine is known as mechanical era.

The invention of induction motor leads to commercialization of electrical energy. So, from 1888 electrical era is begin. So, Nikola Tesla change the entire scenario of the world.

Why solar renewable energy?

Because of climate change, energy crisis in 1973 and again in 2018 there was a financial crisis. This all together crisis forced researchers to think about some kind of alternative solution. From the different alternatives such as wind energy, geothermal energy, hydro energy, bio energy and tidal energy the researchers is found that solar energy is the best alternative solution to fulfilled electrical energy demand.

• Solar energy is the clean energy.
• It creates zero emission during each operation.
• It is available throughout the globe.
• The solar energy system / equipment's is noiseless and affordable.

These are some of the most important reason's researcher's is found to use solar energy.

What are Solar Power System?

The sun provides natural solar reactors that emits countless tiny packets of energy called photons. These photon emission travels 93 million miles from the sun to earth in about 8.5 minutes.

Photons from the sun cause atoms to release electrons, which in turn photovoltaic cells generate a small amount of direct current and send it to an inverter to change it to alternating current. Solar panel are made up of multiple photovoltaic cells that are made of semiconductor material, and multiple connected solar panels create a solar array. Most solar panels contain mainly crystalline silicon solar cells.

The technology behind solar panels is photovoltaic cells. These cells collect sunlight and convert it into electricity. A solar power system includes multiple solar cells that capture the most sunlight. Therefore, more electricity is created in this process when the cells face the sun rather than facing away from the sun. So, the solar power system is the group of solar panels and electrical or electronic components who employ's to receive, transfer, convert and store energy.

So, readers that's it for now, I don't want to confuse or add too much burden on you to read an information. To know more about electrical and electronics see my "Start with electrical and electronics" blog. Stay connected, see you in the next blog post.