How to Harness Solar Energy for your Home
If you’re still in the dark about this topic, let us enlighten you (pun intended). Solar energy is what we get from the sun which we then convert into electrical power. You know that there is a move to shift from fossil fuels, like petroleum and coal, as these are harmful to our environment. Thus, solar energy, which is renewable and inexhaustible, is a pretty good alternative for power. But how exactly do we harness solar energy for our homes?
The Process of Photovoltaics
You may wonder, “How do we harness the power of the sun?” Photovoltaics is what you call it. “Photo” is the Greek word for Light and “Voltaics” is in reference to Alessandro Volta, the inventor of electricity. Essentially, it is what makes a solar panel works. Solar cells capture photons from sunlight. These photons bounce around the semi-conductor layer of the solar cells freeing electrons which, in turn, become the electric current. Connect several solar cells together to form the solar panels to generate more electricity. While there are other ways to collect solar energy, photovoltaics or Solar PV, seems to be more popular. It’s easily adaptable from small-scale like for homes to large-scale like for commercial and industrial use.
The Solar+Storage Solution
Now, you understand how solar panels work and how they help to produce electrical power for your homes. But, what about those days when the sun doesn’t shine? How about on cloudy or rainy days?
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Solar panels can’t produce the same amount of power if there’s no sunshine, like on a cloudy day or at night. There’s simply not enough light to collect. And that’s when the battery or the storage comes in. Any excess power generated from your solar panels is stored in batteries for later use. This is another way to harness solar energy for our homes.
It’s like this, you use the power generated from your solar panels during the day. Your solar panels will continually replenish the power that you’re using. But when it’s night time, naturally, your solar panels won’t be able to replenish the power that you’re using. So, you may have to rely on the grid as your source of power.
But, if you have batteries installed, excess power during the day is diverted and stored in them. Come night time, you may access this power without any problems. Of course, your batteries have to be tailored for how much power you would actually need.
Conclusion
Whether you choose to go with just solar panels or, for added security, you added batteries, you now have the ability to harness solar energy.
If you want to learn more about solar panels, send us a message on Facebook or visit our Ask Solar Mike website.
If you’re interested in accurately computing your solar panels requirement, schedule a call with us and you’ll be on your way towards your solar panel journey.
Originally published at http://blog.asksolarmike.com on June 2, 2021.
