- Solar Energy Definition: Solar energy is defined as the light and heat from the Sun, created by nuclear fusion reactions.
- Solar Energy Production: The Sun produces solar energy by converting hydrogen into helium, emitting large amounts of heat and light.
- Renewable and Pollution-Free: Solar energy is a renewable and pollution-free source of energy, consistently available from the Sun.
- Historical Development: The first solar collector, made in 1767, started the development of solar energy technology.
- Modern Applications: Large-scale solar farms, like those in India and China, show the extensive use of solar energy for electricity production.
Solar Energy System
Solar energy is the light and heat from the Sun that affect Earth’s climate and weather. It is a renewable energy source created by a thermonuclear process that converts about 650,000,000 tons of hydrogen to helium per second. This process produces a lot of heat and electromagnetic radiation. The heat stays in the Sun, sustaining the reaction, while the radiation, including visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light, travels into space. Solar energy is actually nuclear energy. The Sun, like other stars, is a large sphere of hydrogen and helium gas. Inside the Sun, 25% of its hydrogen is turning into helium at about 7 × 1011 kg per second.
Heat from the Sun’s center spreads out and reaches the surface, where the temperature is about 5800 K. According to Stefan-Boltzmann’s Law, the Sun’s surface temperature determines the total energy it releases and the amount of solar energy we receive on Earth. Today, solar energy systems are important for generating electricity and for domestic uses like heating water and cooking. Most electricity currently depends on coal used in thermal power plants (in India, 65% of power is generated this way). However, coal is limited and may run out, making solar energy systems essential for the future.
Solar energy system is the pollution free source of energy and always available because, sun is the single source of solar energy (also known as renewable energy or non conventional energy) which sits at the central point of solar system and radiate energy at an tremendously huge and fairly constant rate, per day per year as the form of electromagnetic radiation. Sun contained huge amount of energy but the whole energy not utilized at earth due to some reason like-
- Earth is revolve at about its polar axis.
- Atmospheric reason of earth.
- Earth is relocate from the sun.
But the main thing is that after these obstacles sun energy reach to earth is sufficient to produce or generate electricity which is polluted free. Due to this consideration somewhat we reduce the use of Thermal Power Plant, Gas Power Plant etc and reserve the non renewable energy sources like coal, petroleum etc for future. In recent years solar energy system is rise as a primary source of energy that converted into electricity and almost all country in the world utilize maximum solar energy to produce electricity and this is very less costly.
The main benefit of solar energy systems is that sunlight is free and available everywhere. Although there is a high initial investment in solar panels to convert solar energy into other forms of energy, the advantage is that once installed, they require little to no maintenance for 40 to 50 years.
History of Solar Energy
First solar collector created by Swiss scientist named Horace-Benedict de Saussure in 1767, he take an insulated box enclosed with three layers of glass which suck up heat energy. After that Saussure’s box became famous and widely known as the first solar oven, getting temperatures of 230 degrees Fahrenheit. After that in 1839 a most important landmark in the progression of solar energy occurs with the significant of the photovoltaic effect by a French scientist Edmond Becquerel. In this he used two electrodes placed in an electrolyte and then exposing it to the light and results is tremendous electricity increased a lot. After that lots of experiment are occurred by various scientists at time to time and modified our solar energy system to produce more electricity from solar energy. But now a day’s also in this field various experiments are doing by a scientist, how to utilize maximum solar energy which is available on the earth.
In 1873, Willoughby Smith discovered photoconductivity of a material known as selenium. In 1887 there was the discovery of the ultraviolet ray capacity to cause a spark jump between two electrodes and this was done by Heinrich Hertz. In 1891 the first solar heater was created. In 1893 the first solar cell was introduced. In 1908 William J. Baileys invented a copper collector which was constructed using copper coils and boxes. In 1958, solar energy was used in space. In the 1970′s, Exxon Corporation designed an efficient solar panel which was less costly to manufacture. Less cost manufacturing process of solar panel became the major milestone in the history of solar energy. In 1977 the US government embraced the use of solar energy by launching the Solar Energy Research Institute. In 1981, Paul Macready produced the first solar powered aircraft. in the year 1982 there was the development of the first solar powered cars in Australia. In 1999 the largest plant was developed producing more than 20 kilowatts.
In 1999, the most proficient solar cell was developed with a photo-voltaic efficiency of 36 percent, now a day we produce 200 megawatts to 600 megawatts electricity from solar energy like in India’s Gujarat Solar Park, a compilation of solar farms spotted around the Gujarat region, show a mutual installed capacity of 605 megawatts and Golmud Solar Park in China, with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts.
