Solar Power An Introduction

If you are more than 10 years old, chances are you have heard often about solar power. Most of us have heard the term. We may have seen photos of enormous solar power panels filling acres of land in California, or France, or even Germany. We may have seen solar panels on top of a house. We may even know that those panels are called photovoltaic (PV) panels, and that they produce PV solar power.

But what is PV solar power?

An Easy Definition

A simple definition of PV solar power is this:

PV solar power is energy that the sun released in the form of sunlight, that was caught by photovoltaic panels, and that was then changed into useable energy.

To put it another way, PV solar power is energy in sunlight that we collect with PV panels, and change into useable heat or electricity.

Many people do not understand PV solar power, perhaps because it seems so foreign to us. We don’t actually understand electricity either, but we accept it because we have lived with it from birth. Solar power is different. It is new - promising, yes, but many would rather leave the promise to a future generation than try to understand solar power.

Test Yourself

How much do you understand about PV solar power?

Questions similar to the following were put to about 1000 people during the summer of 2006, and an astounding number of those people answered incorrectly. See how you do. Answer “true” or “false” to each statement.

1. PV solar power systems work only on hot, cloudless days.

2. PV solar power rooftop systems all are big and ugly.

3. If your PV solar power system generates more energy than you use, there is no way for you to sell the extra energy.

The answers are at the end of this article - and chances are you missed at least one. Don’t feel bad if you did. Remember, an astounding number of the 1000 people tested in 2006 missed all of them!

Seeing the Light

To see raw solar power, you have to do nothing more than look at sunlight. Do not look directly at the sun. Just look out your window and see light. That light is sunlight. It comes from the sun. We see it everyday. Some days, it is bright and hot. Some days, it is dim and cool. It is sunlight, either way, and sunlight contains energy. When you see the light, you are seeing energy flowing from the sun to the earth. It warms us, and lightens our days, and flows into the earth.

The sun is able to produce enough energy each day to run every piece of machinery in the world. It can heat every house in the world, and the water we use in those houses. And it is free for the taking.

PV solar power collects the energy of that sunlight in photovoltaic panels, and stores it in a generator. When you need it, you flip a switch, and you have useable energy. You don’t need to be connected to the power grid. You don’t need to be a city or town. You don’t need to pay a monthly bill to the electric company.

That introduction is brief, but you will find more information about solar power throughout this website.

Answers: Every statement is false.