Today, more and more people are using solar home in their households. Each solar home system must have solar panels to be able to use sunlight energy. What are solar panels, functioning principle, technology development, characteristics, efficiency, and the structure of the solar panels will be described in full here.
Solar panels for households
The energy of the solar radiation that reaches Earth is 10,000 times greater than the energy required to satisfy the needs of humanity, for a period of one year.
Each solar home system must have solar panels to be able to use sunlight energy
Many households around the world use panels for solar home. Even the Vatican state has installed solar panels to 2,400-2,700 roofs, where will prevent the emission of carbon dioxide and reduce the consumption of fuel oil. Abu Dhabi plans to install solar power plant (of 500mV) on the roofs of the entire city.
For the design or purchase of solar panels, it is necessary to know the energy needs of the household. It is also important to know the average number of “sun hours” of the day of each month and geographic location. The intensity of radiation is highest at noon (± 3 hours) and depends on climatic changes during the day.
Almost 90% of the world’s solar panels is made of silicon. They can be connected in series or in parallel. There are three types of solar panels for solar home:
- Monocrystalline solar panels or “single crystal” – high efficiency (12-19%) but they have an expensive production process
- Polycrystalline Solar Panels – lower production costs and they require less energy to produce heat
- Amorphous solar panels – it is a newer technology, production costs are lower, but unfortunately they have lower efficiency (8 – 10%)
Solar panels are composed of a large number of photovoltaic cells that are connected in series or in parallel to obtain a suitable power. The power of each solar panel increases with decreasing temperature, and vice versa, decreases with increasing temperature.
Solar cells
These are semiconductor structures that convert solar radiation into electricity or thermal energy. Every solar cell is composed of a plurality of diodes. Solar cells can be connected to a regular, parallel or combined. It all depends on the strength of the cell. The voltage which is obtained at the output depends on the type of cell and may be 0.3-0.7 V.
Today, solar cells are made from three or four compounds with a significantly higher coefficient of efficiency. Silicon solar cells are the most common. Silicon solar cells are the most abundant in a solar home. They are divided according to the crystallographic structure of: monocrystalline (the most expensive but most effective), polycrystalline and amorphous (they have the lowest efficiency of only 8% but their prices are the lowest).
The maximum output voltage of individual solar cell is about 600-700 mV, so the cells are serially linked to obtain a desired voltage. The most common are 36 cells connected in series to create modules with nominal voltage of 12 volts.
Distortion of nature has become very intense, so alternative energy sources are becoming the solution of this global problem. Solar energy is clean energy without emission of harmful gases. So, if we continue with the construction of solar home systems (including solar panels) in residential buildings, it can solve the problem of environmental pollution and improve the quality of life.
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