Showing posts with label solar panels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar panels. Show all posts

How To Avoid Lightning Bolts on Your Solar Farm - Connecting Solar Panels and DC Cables The Right Way

Connecting Solar Panels
When connecting the solar modules, you should make sure you're not enclosing a polygon with the circuit (string).

Coz that creates an electromagnetic field which can attract lightning bolts. And we wanna avoid that, don't we?

Why Solar Cells Are More or Less Like Batteries and How To Connect The Cells

Solar Cells and Batteries - A Comparison
Right click and open in new tab for full resolution view

If you want to build your own solar panel, consider the solar cells as being batteries, stacked on top of each other.

But of course, you cannot stack the cells. Doing that means only the first cell will get sunlight, thus the others won't produce electricity.

How To Charge Your Phone with a Portable Solar Panel - Video

Camping Solar Panel

Yeah, photovoltaic panels can power your off-the-grid home. But they're not limited to that.

You can now carry a small and light a portable solar panel to charge your gadgets (iPhone, iPod, trekking GPS, camera, etc.) while on the go.

What's McDreamy Doing in This Picture? Or How Patrick Dempsey Endorses Solar Energy and Trina Solar PV Manufacturer - Video

Patrick Dempsey and Trina Solar

Okay, maybe you don't watch Grey's Anatomy but maybe your wife or girlfriend does.

So you may recognize Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamy) endorsing the solar energy solution and Trina Solar as a manufacturer of PV panels in the videos below.

Where Are The Largest Solar Farms in Europe

Rovigo Solar Plant in Italy

Well, does it even make sense to create a top of the largest solar farms in Europe?

World's Largest Solar Farm Is in India

Worlds Largest Solar Farm in India

The world's largest solar farm is located in India: Charanka Solar Park - Kutch, Gujarat.

Check out the map location here.

How Solar Panels Are Made - Video

Mono Crystalline Silicon Cell fro Solar Panels

Here are two videos explaining how solar PV panels are made. One video is produced by Trina Solar and one by Discovery (How It's Made Series).

The main raw material is silicon and, according to some independent engineers, the price of solar panels is still too high considering what they're made of.

Wikipedia fact: Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature.

Silicon

What Are The Sunniest Places Suitable for Your Next Solar Energy Investment - Solar Radiation Map

Solar Radiation Map for Europe - Solar Energy Farms

Before investing in a large solar farm, you may wanna learn whether the site benefits of enough insolation.

In Europe, Germany is the leading country for the use of solar panels, even though according to this solar radiation map (see above), it's not particularly a sunny country. But the Germans are making the best of of everything, aren't they?

What's The Difference Between PV Panels and Solar Panels?

Photo Voltaic Panels on Warehouse Rooftop

While most of us use these terms interchangeably, some may say that...

How a Home Solar System Works - Video

Solar Panel Systems for Your Home

If you've been thinking about installing you own solar panels on your house, you've probably been wondering how a home solar system works.

The simplest systems work like this:
  • All the electric energy that your photo voltaic panels produce goes through an inverter that transforms the DC (direct current) into AC (alternating current) and from there it goes out into the national grid. A meter tells you how much energy you send into the grid.

  • You consume the energy necessary to power your home from the national grid. Your consumption meter tells you how many KW/h you use.

  • At the end of each month (or quarter) a calculation is made between the amount of energy you spent and the amount of energy you produced.

    Thus you know whether you either get money from your electrical company or you have to pay them. And even if you pay them, you pay less than you paid before installing your solar panels array.

Why Your Government Is Giving You Money To Install Solar Panels on Your House


If you live in the western world, you may have heard about the fact that your government is giving grants for mounting solar panels on your house.

What's western world? you may ask. Well, since I've only been to Europe, I'll mention Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. But of course, the rest of the countries have their own programs as well.

If you live in North America, you should check out more info with your authorities to learn whether they're giving out solar panels grants or not.

How To Store Solar Energy - A Theoretical Concept - Infographic

How To Store Solar Energy
Right click and open image in new tab for full resolution view. 

Here is a an idea on how you can presumably store solar energy if you're looking to live off the grid.

The concept is simple and consists of a daytime storing cycle and consumption during the night:
  1. In daytime light, the photo voltaic panels power a water pump which pushes water from the lower tank into the higher tank.
  2. To power the house at night, you simply let the water fall down into the lower tank again. The water spins a turbine which produces electricity.
Of course, this is just a theoretical model.