What is Solar Energy

• Solar energy is the energy provided by the sun. This energy is in the
form of solar radiation, which makes the production of solar
electricity, light, heat water and many more things possible
methods for converting solar power into
electricity
There are two methods of converting solar power into electricity:
1. thermal which is based on concentrating solar
power by mirrors or other type of reflectors to produce
high temperature to generate water vapour or other liquids
with high pressure to rotate turbines to generate electricity
• Heliothermal is the process of conversion of
solar energy to thermal (heat) energy.
• Solar thermal can be used directly for heating
purposes (e.g., domestic hot water)—and this
was the approach taken by many early
residential solar installations. In terms of large-
scale electric utility power generation, solar
energy can be utilized to heat a fluid and
eventually produce steam to drive a traditional
turbine-generator set, which produces AC power
(in contrast to solar cells that have DC output).
2. by making use of photovoltaic (PV) effect to convert
solar power to electric power directly. A photovoltaic
complete system usually consists of the followings:
• Photovoltaic units,
• batteries,
• charging controllers,
• inverters,
• load controllers,
• circuit breakers and wiring.
Solar batteries
Solar batteries are usually lead-acid deep cycle batteries. This kind of
batteries are tolerant to the way of charging and discharging going on
in a solar system and they have a long life time compared to regular car
batteries.
Deep cycle batteries can discharge 80% of their rated capacity. In PV
deep cycle batteries are favored so that during no sunlight periods the
battery is able to supply the load demand.
Charge controller
as the name implies, controls the amount of charge that the battery
would receive. When the battery has reached its charging limit, the
charge controller will withhold further charging of the battery,
sometimes known as voltage regulating.
The absence of this would lead to overcharging of batteries,
consequently damaging batteries and even causing fires
Inverters
convert d.c. voltage from the battery to a.c. voltage so that household
appliances can be powered since most of electrical appliances used in
homes are a.c. There are two types of inverters used in solar systems;
modified sine wave (MSW) and true sine wave (TSW). MSW inverters
are simple and turn d.c. into approximately 120V, 60 cycle a.c. but do
not produce a true sine wave.

TSW inverters are more expensive, but for home use, they are almost
always a better choice than MSW inverters.
Uses of solar energy
• Generating electricity
• Satellites
• Heating
• Water pumping
• Solar dryer
• And so on.
Advantages of solar energy
• Solar energy is a renewable source
• Solar energy does not pollute the environment
• Solar cells operate in complete silence
• Solar energy is free
• Solar electricity can be stored for later use or sold to the power
company
• Solar panels require little maintenance
Disadvantages of solar energy
• Solar panels can be expensive
• Solar power cannot be generated at night
• Solar cells collect little energy through thick cloud cover
THANK YOU
• ANY QUESTIONS?