Solar Energy Is Hot

Solar Energy and Solar Power

No doubt you’ve heard plenty about solar energy but always thought it was too expensive, aside from minor uses in the now popular garden lighting systems. However, with fuel prices climbing and solar cells becoming more reasonable, solar energy and adding solar power to your home is a great, long term solution to high energy bills.

That isn’t to say solar energy is cheap. Before rebates, it typically takes 12 or more years for a homeowner to make their investment in photovoltaic cells or solar panels back. That’s much longer than the average person is willing to wait while making their own solar energy. However, many states now offer rebates for producing solar energy, so the final cost of the solar panels to the homeowner is much less than it use to be. Solar energy rebates vary from state to state, so it’s impossible to say how much of an impact they have overall. There may also be federal incentives for adding solar panels for your own solar energy.

Photovoltaic Cells and Solar Energy

Solar panels are also steadily becoming more efficient. Solar panels produce more solar energy than they used to. They require relatively little maintenance, many of which you may be able to do yourself. This helps to make Photovoltaic Cells very cost effective.

Solar energy isn’t just for making electricity. You can use it heat the water for your swimming pool or heat your home. There are many options available for those who are interesting in building an energy efficient home with solar energy without sacrificing comfort.

Solar power is much, much cheaper than it used to be, as prices have fallen by 90% since the 1970s. That doesn’t make it cheap – yet! – to install enough photovoltaic cells to power a house, but in some areas the incentives given to install solar cells cuts the overall cost to the homeowner about in half.

To decide if solar energy is right for you, take some basic figures into consideration.

- Check your energy consumption. You need to know how big a system you will need to power your home. Make sure you consider your highest consumption levels and the possibility that it will grow somewhat.

- Find out how much a photovoltaic system to meet your need will cost you. The size of the photovoltaic cells will depend both on your solar energy need and on the available sunlight (solar resource) in your area.

- Find out what rebates and incentives are available to you to help decrease your costs.

- Consider whether your system will be on the grid or off. On the grid has the advantage that you can sell when you have an excess and buy electricity when you don’t have enough, while with an off the grid system you have a battery to store your excess.

- Consider what the environmental benefits are worth to you. This is a personal factor rather than a direct economic one. It won’t save you money, but knowing that you’re contributing a little less to pollution with solar energy might change how you feel about the expense.

Choosing to use solar energy in your home is an investment you can appreciate on many levels. Over a number of years it will save you money as you generate environmentally friendly solar energy. It’s not cheap to get started, but when you combine the environmental benefits with decreasing your reliance on fuel costs you can certainly appreciate the possibilities of solar energy.
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Solar Energy as Alternative Energy

Solar Power – Solar Energy For Alternative Energy

Solar cells – Photovoltaic cells -those black squares an array of which comprises a solar panel-are getting more efficient, and gradually less expensive, all the time. Thanks to ever-better designs of photovoltaic cells which all them to focus the gathered sunlight for solar power on a more and more concentrated point. The size of the photovoltaic cells is decreasing as their efficiency rises, meaning that these solar cells becomes cheaper to produce and at once more productive. As far as the aforementioned cost, the price of producing solar-generated alternative energy per watt hour has come down to $4.00 at the time of this writing. Just 17 years ago, it was nearly double that cost of producing solar energy. The reduction in costs of solar cells are a big help in the decrease of generating this power.

Solar powered electricity generation is certainly good for the environment, as this alternative energy form gives off absolutely zero emissions into the atmosphere and is merely utilizing one of the most naturally occurring of all things as its driver. Solar energy collection cells are becoming slowly but surely ever more practical for placing upon the rooftops of people’s homes, and solar cells are not a difficult system to use for heating one’s home, creating hot water, or producing electricity. In the case of using the photovoltaic cells for hot water generation, the system works by having the water encased in the solar cells, where it is heated and then sent through your pipes.

Photovoltaic cells are becoming increasingly better at collecting sufficient radiation from the sun even on overcast or stormy days. One company in particular, Uni-Solar, has developed solar energy collection arrays for the home that work well on inclement days, by way of a technologically more advanced system that stores more energy at one time during sunlit days than previous or other arrays.

There is actually another alternative energy solar power system available for use called the PV System. The PV System is connected to the nearest electrical grid; whenever there is an excess of solar energy being collected at a particular home, it is transferred to the grid for shared use and as a means of lowering the grid’s dependence on the hydroelectrically-driven electricity production. Being connected to the PV System can keep your costs down as compared to full-fledged solar energy, while at once reducing pollution and taking pressure off the grid system. Some areas are designing centralized solar collection arrays for small towns or suburban communities.

Some big-name corporations have made it clear that they are also getting into the act of using solar power (a further indication that solar generated energy is becoming an economically viable alternative energy source). Google is putting in a 1.6 megawatt solar power generation plant on the roof of its corporate headquarters, while Wal Mart wants to put in an enormous 100 megawatt system of its own.

Nations such as Japan, Germany, the United States, and Switzerland have been furthering the cause of solar energy production by providing government subsidies or by giving tax breaks to companies and individuals who agree to utilize solar power for generating their heat or electrical power. As technology advances and a greater storage of solar collection materials is made available, more and more private investors will see the value of investing in this “green” technology and further its implementation much more. We’ll be seeing solar cells more and more in years to come.

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Solar Power Fire and Electrical Hazards

Solar panels catching on fire? Although extremely rare, fires can originate from solar panels. In January 2007, California launched an effort to install 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new solar power, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. Inspectors may encounter these photovoltaic (PV) arrays with increasing frequency and may want to be aware of the ways in which an installed PV array may pose a fire hazard to a home.

Do solar panels cause fires?

Installed properly, PV solar panels do not cause fires. Most PV modules are tested by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which subjects them to the rigors of everyday use before they are certified. In the rare cases where PV modules have been implicated in house fires, the cause has been electrical arcing due to improper installation, faulty wiring or insufficient insulation.

PV Systems and House Fires

Solar power PV systems may be a hazard in the case of a house fire, particularly if firefighters are not aware that a solar power system is installed. Some of these hazards are as follows:

The conduit leading from PV panels to an inverter may remain live with direct current even after the main service panel has been shut off. Firefighters who unknowingly sever live lines are vulnerable to electrical shock. Some firefighters carry a “hot stick” that aids them in finding live wires, but it does not detect direct current.
Solar panels used for solar power and their batteries contain toxic chemicals that may be released in a fire and are dangerous if inhaled.
PV modules may become slippery and pose a slip-and-fall risk to inspectors, technicians and firefighters.
Solar panels may block key points and pathways that inspectors, technicians and firefighters would otherwise use to mount, navigate and dismount from a roof.
PV modules may inhibit ventilation of a fire in prime roof locations.
The added weight of a solar panel array may lead to roof collapse if the integrity of the structure is already compromised by fire.

Inspectors may want to check for the following design elements that will prevent PV modules from exacerbating the dangers of a house fire:

Solar panel installation should be performed and subsequently inspected regularly by a qualified solar power professional.
PV systems should be labeled in a clear and systematic manner to ensure that technicians and firefighters can quickly and easily identify key elements of the system. The main service disconnect panel should be clearly labeled on the outside cover, if it is operable from the outside without opening. Both interior and exterior portions of live conduit should be labeled every 10 feet. Batteries should also be clearly labeled.
Every solar panel installation should have a rooftop shutoff valve. This switch could be utilized to disable the direct current running from the solar panels through the conduit.
The roof should have sufficient pathways and perimeter space around the PV modules so that inspectors and firefighters can traverse the roof safely.
There should be a section of the roof left vacant so that it may be ventilated, if necessary.
Check for damage from rodents and other pests, which could compromise wiring or insulation of the solar panel installation.
There should be an integrated arc-fault detection device present in the solar panels, which shuts down individual panels in the case of a malfunction, such as arcing.
During the permitting process when the PV system is installed, the local fire department should be given a set of the plans of the solar panel installation to refer to in case of emergency.

In summary, photovoltaic solar panels rarely cause house fires directly, but the potential hazards they pose in the event of a house fire can be mitigated with proper solar panel installation and preparation.
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