Solar energy is essentially the energy radiated by the Sun which is harnessed by a number of ever-changing technologies including photovoltaic, solar heating, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal power, solar architecture and artificial Photosynthetic crops. Solar energy has a wide range of uses from heating water and air to powering electrical appliances in urban areas at high voltages. The Earth’s bounty has the potential to meet all our energy needs with the least amount of additional input from human beings. All this is made possible by solar energy systems.
Solar thermal collectors use a collection of panels to trap the Sun’s rays during the day and then use them to heat water, air or even the ground to temperatures sufficient for applications such as electricity generation. Solar thermal storage systems use metals like iron, aluminum or stainless steel in order to trap the Sun’s heat during daytime and keep it close to the heated surface. This is usually done by using thick glass panels on the front of the thermal storage structure. The temperature difference between the hot interior surface and the cold exterior surface is what causes the difference in thermal mass.
Solar thermal collectors are often combined with other technology such as photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells convert the light into electricity by excited state reaction. When exposed to the Sun’s rays photovoltaic cells change from a solid state into an excited one, thus creating an electric current. These cells are constructed in a way that makes them capture and store the energy of the sun in a circuit, usually by way of a thin wafer of copper or silver conductor. The conductors in these systems can be constructed out of a variety of materials depending on the application, but are most often made of material such as silicon, indium, gallium, selenide or tantalum.