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Solar Electric Power Offers Bright Future
By George Sykes

Numerous methods of harnessing power, to reduce our dependency or non-renewable resources, are being tried in various parts of the country. Wind and sun are the two most dominant in that arena and the sun is proving to be hot spot for activity in generating solar electric power.

The sun's radiance hits the Earth generating about 1,366 watts per square meter, on average, but clouds, rain and other weather conditions reduces that down to about 1,020 watts of solar electric power per square meter at the equator. However, due to a variety of circumstances and position, in North America, photovoltaic panels only covert about 15 percent of incidental sunlight into solar electric power, or an average between 19 and 56 watts per square meter per day.

National Aeronautic and Space Administration has been using solar electric power to provide electrical power to space vehicles and there are many houses with solar collectors on their roof harnessing the solar electric power to help subsidize the home's electrical needs. Power generated through the use of photovoltaic cells is direct current, which must be converted to alternating current for use in most home appliances and applications. This conversion causes a loss in power, however with direct current being produced, batteries can store the power generated during the day for use after dark.

New Applications Continually Found

Possibly the first consumer use of solar electric power was for small hand-held calculators with used the power of light instead of batteries for power. These inventions set the stage for continued improvement of the process and development of better solar collectors, reducing the price of manufacturing the collectors and increasing the use of solar electric power.

Houses can be built where no electric power is available and through the use of solar electric power can still experience all the modern conveniences. Supplying enough power to involve and entire household would take several banks of solar gathering cells, but the advent of direct solar electric power has helped in this regard.

A parabolic-shaped bank of cells can produce more electric power than a smaller bank of flat cells since it can track the sun, gathering more light consistently. Storing that power, however prompts the need for a large bank of batteries. Direct to alternating current conversion technology has also grown, think about AC converters for your car, to enable all sorts of appliances, including furnaces, to work on solar electric power.

Author Details:
George Sykes writes for various web sites writing articles about environmental issues and green energy such as solar power.

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