Top 4 Advantages of Solar Energy

 Advantages of Solar Energy

1. Universal: The sun's rays shine on the earth, there is no geographical limitation whether on land or sea, no matter mountains or islands, there is everywhere, it can be directly developed and used, easy to collect, and no need to mine and transport.

2. Harmless: The development and use of solar energy does not pollute the environment, it is one of the clean energy, which is extremely valuable in today's increasingly serious environmental pollution.

3. Huge: The annual solar radiation energy reaching the earth's surface is equivalent to about 130 trillion tons of coal, and its total amount is among the big energy sources that can be developed in the world nowadays.

4. Long-lasting: according to the rate of nuclear energy generated by the sun is estimated that the storage of hydrogen is enough to maintain tens of billions of years, while the life of the Earth is also about billions of years, in this sense, it can be said that the sun's energy is inexhaustible.

Applications of Solar Energy

Photothermal utilization

Its basic principle is to collect the solar radiation energy, through the interaction with the material converted into heat energy to be used. The current use of more solar energy collection devices, mainly flat plate collectors, vacuum tube collectors, ceramic solar collectors and focusing collectors (tank, dish and tower) and other four types. Solar thermal utilization is usually divided into low-temperature utilization (<200°C), medium-temperature utilization (200-800°C) and high-temperature utilization (>800°C) depending on the temperature and usage. At present, low-temperature utilization mainly includes solar water heater, solar dryer, solar distiller, solar heating (solar room), solar greenhouse, solar air conditioning and refrigeration system, etc. Medium-temperature utilization mainly includes solar cooker, solar thermal power generation concentrating collector device, etc. High-temperature utilization mainly includes high-temperature solar furnace, etc.

Power generation utilization

New energy future large-scale use of solar energy is used to generate electricity. There are various ways to use solar power generation. Has been practical mainly the following two.

• Light - heat - electricity conversion. That is, the use of solar radiation generated by the thermal energy generation. Generally, solar collectors are used to convert the absorbed heat energy into steam, and then driven by steam turbine driven generator power generation. The former process is the light-thermal conversion, and the latter process is the heat-electricity conversion. This way is simple and easy, low cost and big return, suitable for large area promotion in China.
• Light-to-electricity conversion. Its basic principle is the use of photovoltaic effect should be obvious direct conversion of solar radiation energy into electricity, its basic device is the solar cell. Unfortunately, the efficiency of this type of power generation is only 10%, and its cost is greater than the life span, there is no economic value. In the process of manufacturing solar cells, often produce secondary pollution.

Solar Cells

Material requirements: resistance to ultraviolet light radiation, light transmission does not decline. Tempered glass made of components can withstand the impact of a 25 mm diameter ice ball at 23 m / s.

Solar power is widely used in solar street lamps, solar pest control lamps, solar portable systems, solar mobile power, solar application products, communication power, solar lamps, solar architecture and other fields.

Solar energy will likely become the main source of electricity by 2050, aided by the plunge in the cost of power generation equipment. the IEA report said that by 2050 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will contribute 16% more electricity to most countries, and solar thermal power (STE) from solar power plants will provide 11% of the electricity.

Photochemical utilization

This is a form of photo-chemical conversion that uses solar radiation energy to directly decompose water for hydrogen production. It includes photosynthesis, photoelectrochemistry, photosensitization chemistry and photolysis reaction.

Photochemical conversion is the process of conversion to chemical energy due to the absorption of light radiation leading to chemical reactions. The basic forms are photosynthesis in plants and photochemical reactions that use chemical changes in substances to store solar energy.

Plants rely on chlorophyll to convert light energy into chemical energy to achieve their own growth and reproduction, and if the mystery of photochemical conversion can be revealed, artificial chlorophyll can be realized to generate electricity. Solar photochemical conversion is being actively explored and researched.

Fuel utilization

Since June 2011, the European Union has been working on the development and production of "solar fuel" using water and carbon dioxide as raw materials, using the high-temperature energy provided by the sun's rays.