Solar Power

Solar power can fall into two categories, as far as I can tell. The first is based upon capturing heat from the sun and the second is capturing electrical power from the sun by way of direct conversion of sunlight.

Both of these areas are of great interest to me. First let’s look together at heat capture.

Solar Power – Capturing Heat

This form of solar power collection is actually quite low tech. It involves at its simplest level, heating up coolant or water in a solar collection that is optimized to concentrate the heat from the sun. Next this heated fluid is then pumped into a heat converter unit that transfers the heat from the collection system to a holding tank system.

Next, the holding tank system can either be usable hot water or a boiler system where it pipes the heated collection water throughout a building to heat the building.

Solar Power – Capturing Electrical Energy

This form of solar power collection is a bit more complex. It relies on a solar cell based technology to convert sunlight directly to electrical energy. Unfortunately to date, this method has a high entry cost because the solar cells that convert the sunlight to electrical energy are still expensive to create. Also, their efficiency is still pretty poor.

I’ve read on other sites, you can expect a 15% conversion rate at best with modern solar cells. Does that make me anti-pro solar cell? Definitely not! With technology getting cheaper in this area and the interest from the general public picking up, it’s only a matter of time before solar cell technology finds it’s place.

So, that’s are brief overview of the two major types of solar power collection. Please feel free to leave your comments!