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The worldwide awareness and campaigning on the  threat of environmental imbalance and polluted energy resources has made public opinion in favour of safe and clean environment . The corporate and industrial sector is not averse to cause of environmental safety. This is reflected  from the new  technologies for alternative use of energy  resources. Solar energy is fast catching up as a most viable option of alternative energy owing to its non-polluting and inexhaustible  nature. Solar panel is a wonder-tool in this concern which is unleashing a silent revolution which is visible in various spectrum and colours.

Retail Houses Up-link With Solar Energy

Now  solar energy panels are not a object limited only to the vast farmhouses in the  countryside. The great idea of adopting the eco-friendly and economical solar energy has already dawned upon the minds of big corporate houses. This is attested by the view of solar panels spotting the rooftops of retail house buildings. A substantial reduction in the energy needs cost is assured in case of business houses who welcome the solar energy. In addition to cutting down the  tax bills , solar power is safe and human-friendly.

Solar Panels in Print Form

Now solar energy panels for harnessing the sunlight are also present in form of print sheets. This has been made possible by the efforts of Konarka Technologies in association with Massachusetts based  research  team. These panels have been framed on a  technology analogous to the  inkjet printing technology . Important thing  is that these panels can be mounted on any surface or printed directly onto a surface . This innovation is going to make the solar panel a light weight and easy to install tool unlike those bulky and heavy frames of solar panels commonly found.

Solar Energy Powered Mobile Phones

Soon it will be unnecessary to rely on th electrical charging of the cellular phones. The solar panel meant for powering the functioning of the mobile phone is built on the straps attached to the mobile phones. Such type of technology is at present initiated by Strap ya company with brand name Solar Charge EC.

Solar Panels to Power Space Vehicles

the latest state of the art technology research has made it reality to visualize the space travel without depending upon propellant fuel as energy source. The special purpose solar  panels in this case are based on silicon fusion linked amorphous material. An alteration in the existing norm of propellant based spacecraft engine is mandatory along with the compliance with solar panel system. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), New York reportedly have entered into  a contract with United Solar Ovonic in this concern.  Once completed the project will be  a great step in direction of clean and cost-effective space travel for astronomical purposes and airships.

Solar Panels on Fabrics

It is very interesting of thinking  clothes enabled with solar panels for using up the sunlight around. With the concerted   research work of Japanese scientists this is no less than a reality. The  solar panel laden fabrics are based on extremely thin solar cell panel and  render  the  properties like easily molding and colorfulness with equal aesthetic appeal as normal cloth.

Many individuals, especially those who are newbies in solar technology might wonder how solar panel works.  But first, what is a home solar panel? This is a sun-powered gadget that collects and utilizes the energy from the sun via its rays and converting them into power.

Some residents use home solar panel gadgets to act as alternative source of power for their small home appliances, effectively complementing the electricity consumption from the local utility.

Still there are home owners who invest on residential solar panels that can fully power the home, running all its appliances, water heater and even the swimming pool. However, for you to own and install your own home solar panel that will work as sole source of your everyday power requirements can be very costly. A solar panel unit actually has an exorbitant price of several thousand dollars.

Now, how solar panel works can be answered simply. It has photovoltaic cells in the panels that mainly work by collecting the energy from the rays of the sun that falls on them. Such photovoltaic cells effectively convert solar energy into electricity for home use.

You can very well consider these gadgets as investments, because you need to shell out a sizeable amount of money in order to purchase and install them as your power source. It is certainly a serious investment as albeit you only have to spend an initial sum of money, the amount needed is really a big one. After the purchase you need not worry about it as the solar gadgets runs on its own, creating endless supply of power for your residence with the help, of course, of the sun.

Many advocates of clean and green environment recommend the utilization of home solar panel if only because the energy that it gathers and converts to power comes from the sun. Hence, the produced power is clean and harmless to the world environment. Likewise, you need not worry about solar energy running out as the supply is endless. Solar energy is clean renewable energy, and so is considered as the best alternative energy there is.

For more photovoltaic cells and home solar panel articles, do visit our Solar Panel World blog.

Step number one in getting started with any solar power setup in your home is to perform an energy audit. This is where you evaluate the amount of power (in kilowatts/hour or kilowatt hours) that you’ll need in any given day.

You will also need to take into account the site where your home is located. Geographical considerations such as climate, number of peak hours of sunlight per day, number of days of peak sunlight per year, and average rainfall will play a big role in how efficient a solar system you can design.

Any solar electric system will need, at the very least, the following components:

a collector (usually solar panels);
a mount (to put it on);
an inverter (to convert 12 volt DC power to 110 volt AC power);
a circuit breaker or fuse box and fuses & switches (to regulate the power transferring from the panels to your outlets and/or storage batteries);
(optional) one or more storage batteries;
(if you get a battery) a charge controller (to keep from over- or undercharging the battery and severely reducing its lifespan);

Once you’ve purchased all the elements of the solar system you’ve just designed, installation is fairly easy, though the simplicity of installing a solar power system does not mean you should necessarily do it yourself. There are numerous advantages to hiring a professional installer with training in both electrical systems and solar electrical systems, including knowing how to set everything up to code, should the building inspector ever have the need to look it over (ie. for insurance purposes).

If you find the right solar professional, they will instruct you in those parts of the installation that you are capable of and allow you to do some of the work yourself, saving you on some of your labor costs.

Even if you don’t decide to have a professional install your solar system, it would be well worth your while to consult one with your design to make sure it’s a viable design, one that’s taken all the necessary considerations into account. For example, there is a wide selection of panels, controllers, inverters, and batteries, each one manufactured with different requirements, each one not necessarily interchangeable with the other.

To further minimize the chances of incompatibilities between components in your solar system, consider purchasing all the elements of your set up from the same company and consulting with someone on their sales team that is knowledgeable in solar electric power.

In fact, many companies sell solar kits that contain all the components you would need to set your house up with solar power, with the certainty that all the components are compatible.

Whatever you decide, you don’t have to break the bank to try and supplant your entire power grid reliance with solar power right away and all at once. If you’re interested in availing yourself and your household of the multifold benefits of solar power, start small. Get yourself a single solar panel and see how well that works for you. When you’re ready, add on more panels, batteries, etc., one at a time as you can afford it and as your needs evolve.

i am moving into a new house and there is a solar panel and a condenser boiler!
the solar pannel only heats the water but i thought that was the point of having a condenser boiler?
i thought condenser boilers heated up the water as you turned on the tap?
so how does the solar panel do anything?
shouldn’t the solar panel just generate electricity in general, not just restricted to the hot water?

If you’ve come across this page because you are searching for the facts on the lowest solar panel cost per kwh, i think you’ll be really inspired. You will learn a simple but very effective method to almost immediately start enjoying enough free energy to keep your entire household running, as well as earning cash for it. Sound too good to be true? You’ll be glad you took the time to continue on with this brief article.

What is the purpose of giving money to the electric company every month when you can generate your own power with simple solar panels and a converter, simple enough to set up yourself in just a couple of days? And fortunately, this system doesn’t cost much; solar was most common on luxury homes in the recent past, but technology advanced and prices dropped.

You may be wondering how i found all this out. Some time ago, i was getting interested in solar energy and was doing web searches for the lowest solar panel cost per kwh and i discovered that tens of thousands of people from all across the nation and many other countries already started using a truly extraordinary solution that lets them create their own home power supply through solar technology, with almost no effort. I wanted to find out more about this, and was happy to learn that you can get up and running at what i would call a bargain basement price we can all afford (who can’t afford to save money?). Former restrictions like accessibility and cost have been removed and we can benefit from technology which provides us with the means to tap into an earth-friendly energy source as sure as the sun will shine.

Perhaps you’re only curious about the lowest solar panel cost per kwh, but take the time to confirm that this is all indeed possible – not only will you benefit from an abundant, free energy supply, you don’t have to be dependent on the electric company or any other corporate for your family’s energy needs. I also learned that you have the opportunity to earn extra income from the local power company for any excess electricity generated by your system. Here’s one more important thing to consider – with this clean energy system you’ll be doing your part to save the earth now and for centuries to come.

Introduction:

Global warming impact to our quality and cost of living is large and very catastrophic. Homeowners are well aware of the increasing energy costs to heat, cool and illuminate their homes. The increasing costs of oil and other fossil fuels are daily headlines. The insatiable demand for energy to fuel world growth guarantees that the cost of these limited fuels will continue to increase. Political/economic forces will determine the rate of increase for fossil fuels. In addition, the increasing cost of global warming using fossil fuels is slowly being recognized.

The world is slowly beginning to understand the urgent need for renewable energy sources. However, each of these alternative energy sources brings major advantages and disadvantages. An example is wind generated energy. Wind energy is available to the whole world and generates electricity competitively with fossil fuels. The technology is understood and easy to apply. But, there are big objections to a windmill in “my back yard”. Also, the number of birds and bats that will be crushed with wind power generation is not a warming thought. Wind technology will be a component of our energy solution. However, because of the above concerns, we need other major solutions to meet our demand for energy sources.

This search leads us to solar energy. The amount of sun energy striking our world in one day is sufficient to supply our energy demands for a year. We will not run out of this source in the foreseeable future. The major barrier to harnessing solar energy has been cost and convenience. For example, drying clothes in a dryer is easier than hanging clothes on an outside line, thus convenience precluded efforts to find more energy efficiency. We can convert solar energy to electricity but with a major capital cost. Greater acceptance and use of solar energy will lead to lower cost.

Solar Energy:

Energy from solar energy can be divided into two major categories:

Passive Solar Energy: This technology ranges from clothes drying in the sun to solar heating for hot water and many other passive techniques. All are important for our present and future quality of life. The technology is well understood and can be implemented as economics and space conditions allow.

Active Solar Energy: One of the active solar energy technologies is converting solar energy directly into electricity. It is called photovoltaic cell or PV. This is a device that converts light into electricity using the photoelectric effect. The first working solar cells were constructed by Charles Fritts in 1883. These prototype cells were made of selenium and achieved efficiencies around one percent. The silicon solar cell was created in 1954. The solar cell has benefited from the development of silicon semiconductors.

Physics of Active Solar Energy:

The physics of photon to electricity conversion is well understood by physicists. The basic model is of a photon from the sun which strikes the cell material and excites electrons that emit electricity. This model is simple compared to the complexity of modern day semiconductors. The major variables of PV electrical generation are cell material and impurities in the cell material.

Manufacturing Technology for Active Solar Energy:

Primarily single crystal, high purity silicon has been used to generate photon to electricity conversion. The manufacturing techniques for single crystal silicon and limited quantities of pure silicon impose a high cost for PV devices. Shortages of refined silicon have been hampering production worldwide since late 2004. This shortage persists to this date and has slowed PV growth. New materials are starting to come forward which should lower the PV materials hurdle.

Efficiency growth of Active Solar Energy:

Since the silicon PV invention in 1954, cheaper fossil fuel prices largely removed solar power from the public consciousness. Annual growth of electrical generation by PV ranged from 10 to 20% percent throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Worldwide installation of PV reached 1000 megawatts in 1999. Manufacturing costs for PV arrays has been dropping 3 to 5% over the recent years. This cost drop began to expand the use of PV electricity generation. Total peak power of installed PV was around 6000 megawatts at the end of 2006. Installed PV is projected to increase to over 9,000 megawatts in 2007. The average lowest retail cost of large photovoltaic arrays has declined from $7.50 to $4.00 per watt between 1990 and 2005.

PV materials have also been improving in recent years. The most recent materials approach is to process discrete cells on silicon wafers cut from multi crystalline ribbons which form thin films. This approach is the least expensive of known technologies. This group of technologies includes amorphous silicon cells deposited on stainless-steel ribbon, cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells deposited on glass, and copper indium gallium dielenide (CIGS) alloy cells deposited on either glass or stainless steel substrates. The efficiencies of these new materials are currently at 20%. Many researchers are working to improve the efficiencies. An added advantage of the new thin films is that they are flexible and are currently being used in roofing materials.

Current Trends in Generating Active Solar Energy:

Commercial businesses like Google, IBM, BJ’s Wholesale, Estee Lauder, Kohls, Target, Tiffany & Co., Wal-Mart are installing PV solar energy. From “big box” discount giants to high end commercial businesses PV solar energy is finding acceptance in 2007. The most recent retail-outfitter to become part of this trend is Macy’s, which announced earlier this month that it will install solar powered systems on 26 stores throughout California. These leading companies are turning to solar power because it makes good business sense and supports their environmental initiative. Creative financial arrangements allow these companies to afford the upfront capital costs and payback their loans with energy savings. So what does all this mean to the average home owner? PV Cost per Kilowatt (kWh):

In the California market, where state incentives and net metering are in place, PV electricity prices are dipping below 11¢/kWh, on par with some utility-delivered power. Moreover, according to the U.S. PV Industry Roadmap, solar electricity will continue this trend and become competitive by 2010 for most domestic markets. The outlook is very positive for PV generation of electricity. Once the capital investment is made, the cost of PV electricity is equivalent to fossil fuels and will continue to decrease.

Cost of PV Installation:

The cost of installation is the major barrier that has to be overcome for widespread PV acceptance. Around 59% of world solar product sales installed in the last five years were applications that are tied to the electricity grid. Solar energy prices in these applications are 5-20 times more expensive than the cheapest source of conventional electricity generation. This premium is well beyond the reach of the average home owner.

Fortunately, there are financial models coming forward to enable the consumer to finance PV solar installation and pay for this installation with the electrical savings. In order to make these financial models successful, federal and state incentives are needed and the installation should be connected to the electrical grid. These connections allow the home owner to sell back electricity when excessive amounts are available and to receive electricity when solar conditions do not allow sufficient electricity. Only fifty percent of our states have modernized to allow on-grid PV solar energy.

Berkeley, California is leading the way to enable it citizens to save electrical cost and meet environmental needs. Here is how their plan works. A property owner hires a city-approved solar installer, who determines the best solar system for the property, depending on energy use. Most residential solar panel systems in the city cost from $15,000 to $20,000.

The city will pay the contractor for the system and its installation, minus any applicable state and federal rebates, and would add an assessment to the property owner’s tax bill to pay for the system. The extra tax would include administrative fees and interest, which would be lower than what the property owner could obtain on their own, because the city would secure low-interest bonds and loans. The tax would stay with the property even if the owner sold, although the owner would have to leave the solar panels. The property owner would save money on monthly Pacific Gas & Electric bills because electricity generated by the solar panels would partly replace electricity delivered by the utility. After the assessment expired, the solar panels, of a simple technology that requires little or no maintenance, would continue to partly replace PG&E electricity.

The Berkeley plan is a map for the rest of the world to allow us affordable electricity and meet our responsibilities to the environment.

I have a BS and MS in Metallurgical Engineering. Thirty six years spent in the development of semiconductors. Business experience in start up business plan. Currently, an oyster farmer and interested in helping the environment by deploying solar energy. Please visit my Web Site http://www.charlestonenvironmentalhelp.com

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If you’re ‘suffering’ from high monthly household payments and you’re surfing the internet looking for material on how do solar panels produce electricity then you must read the following – you may find it ‘shocking.’ What if you were to learn that you can generate plenty of clean, green energy for everyone in your entire household, all alone, at almost no cost to you – sound a bit unlikely? Keep reading the following report and get the great news.

The situation is that people generally obtain their power from the electric company; they pay their bills month-by-month and say good-bye to the hard-earned money they spend on this irritating expense. However, there are the lucky (or smart) ones who found an excellent alternative; they were tired of that monthly money crunch – they simply wanted access to free, limitless, and earth-friendly energy that would actually last them forever.

Before you get more information about how do solar panels produce electricity it is important that you’ll know that you can join these people, actually you can enjoy this $0 cost power supply in just few days from now – you just have to take that first step. Perhaps this has intrigued you and now you want some facts as to what this all entails; it’s really a very easy process of taking advantage of the earth’s natural power suppliers – the wind and the sun. Do you realize that just about anyone can set up a windmill and/or solar energy system to create their own electricity with little time or effort without needing outside help?

Even if you’re probably just curious about how do solar panels produce electricity hopefully you now realize how easy it is to build a system to harness the power of the sun and wind that will save you big money right away and for the rest of your life. I imagine you’re still thinking that this will be very technical and expensive; times have changed and the whole process has been simplified – leading the way is an expert in harnessing the unlimited power of the sun and wind who ‘cracked the code’ that enables anyone to do that.

In California, where the sun truly does shine almost all the time, a new record for rooftop solar was achieved last year, and the figures don’t even include systems installed in areas served by the state’s municipally-owned utilities.

Homeowners and businesses installed 158 megawatts of photovoltaic panels, in spite of a widening recession that seems to have targeted the state, at least according to the most recent study released by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank.

This is in spite of the credit freeze that is parching the economy and drying up renewable energy projects from coast to coast. So how did California, leader in all things green, accomplish this record-breaking solar wave, which doubled the 78 megawatts installed in 2007?

State-funded initiatives, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, and most of these attributable to the California Solar Initiative started two years ago.

Not only did 2008 top 2007, but the largest volume of homeowner rebate requests came in December, the year the recession hit home in terms of record unemployment, nearly negative GDP, dead housing starts and negative home values, minimal Christmas retail sales, sliding stocks and – most indicative of all, at least to this writer – the bankruptcy filing by the New York Times-owned Tribune Company.

If that doesn’t sum up the bad news, I don’t know what does. In spite of that, even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced to admit that solar panels sales were the single bright spot in an economic doom-and-gloom picture that threatens to cut the state’s payout of tax refunds, student grants and welfare checks unless the budget can be forced to balance.

“I’m encouraged to see that even in these difficult financial times we are breaking solar installation records and spurring private investment in solar projects.” The governor noted.

As well he should be. The Solar Initiative, funded by ratepayers, offers rebates to homeowners and businesses that install solar panels, and the refunds are typically between 20 and 50 percent of a system’s cost.

You would think Californians would be tightening their belts. Instead, new federal tax breaks via the Clean Energy Stimulus Act of 2008, combined with state and regional initiatives, have Golden Staters turning away from stocks and dodgy real estate and going for the real gold – power from sunlight.

Solar is certainly a good place to invest one’s money when all else seems in danger of failing. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy has projected that solar power could potentially be the largest contributor to the nation’s renewable energy portfolio, or up to 28 percent of the renewable energy mix.

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