Solar Power Energy For Cheap Alternative Energy
As we seek ways to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel, with new technological advances and greater environmental awareness, solar power plants and systems will hopefully become commonplace throughout the world. Accumulating the power of the sun and converting it to solar power energy we can use for our every day needs is achieved through several methods.
The two most common are the photovoltaic system and the concentrating solar power system. The Photovoltaic system or PV system, converts sunlight directly into electricity and is the one most commonly used in residential and industrial applications. The Concentrating Solar Power, or CSP system, uses the heat from the sun instead of fossil fuel, to provide the heat to fuel a traditional power plant, generating enough electricity to power a city. A CSP system generates electricity on a large scale using one of three methods, the parabolic-trough system, dish engine system and power tower system.
Panels for generating solar power energy can vary greatly in cost depending on the type of installation you are aiming for. If your building is in a more remote area and is industrial you can use the typical boxy style roof mounted panels. If you want a more discrete, dual purpose installation you can even have your structure constructed with solar cells built right into the roofing, awning and window materials.
Solar panels are not limited to roof-mounting. Using ground and pole mounting systems for solar panels is another option. The ground and pole mounts offer more design flexibility and can be an advantage if your structure is shaded for part of the day. It is also possible to equip solar panels with mechanisms that will follow the path of the sun during the course of the day, which will provide the most exposure to the sun for producing solar power energy.
A parabolic-trough system uses long mirrors to magnify the sun’s heat. Oil, pumped through pipes embedded in the mirrors, absorbs this heat and carries it away from the mirrors. The heated oil is then used to heat up water which creates steam that is harnessed to power a generator.
Dish-engine systems that are made up of a solar parabolic dish, use heated fluids in a similar way to the parabolic-trough systems, but the expansion of the heated fluid allows it to move large pistons for powering an electric generator to generate solar power energy.
Solar power energy created by power tower systems use a huge array of mirrors to focus the heat from the sun onto a tower mounted receiver which heats molten salt flowing through the receiver. The heat from the molten salt is then used to heat water to create steam to power a generator.
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