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What Is Solar Energy?
Solar energy is energy generated by the sun that can be converted into power, typically electricity. Solar is one of the most popular forms of renewable energy due to low purchasing costs for equipment, low maintenance, and its abundant source. As electricity demand continues to rise amid climate change concerns, consumers are looking at alternative, clean energy sources to power their homes, businesses, and vehicles, and solar is a popular option.
How Is Solar Energy Produced and Stored?
In the U.S. in 2020, the typical residential home used an average of 893 kWh per month, and usage is expected to increase as more homeowners switch to electric-powered vehicles and charge vehicle batteries at home. As of 2021, more than 3 percent of the total electricity produced in America came from solar. Some states, though, reported even higher percentages than the national average. Still, the overwhelming majority of energy source to produce electricity comes from fossil fuels.
Solar Power Plants
Solar energy produced in the U.S. primarily comes in two forms: solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP). Photovoltaics are the common type that is found on the rooftops of homes and commercial buildings and on arrays at solar farms.
Solar-thermal power comes from a facility in which mirrors direct sunlight onto the top of a tower, where water is heated to produce steam. That steam then powers turbines to produce electricity.
Solar Storage
While the sun’s energy is almost limitless, the hours of sunlight are not. Solar power can immediately be converted into electricity during the day, but nighttime is problematic. Storing power generated by solar energy in batteries creates a supply of electricity available for homes and businesses at night. Tesla’s lithium-ion Powerwall battery storage device, for example, has an energy capacity of 13.5 kWh, which can meet about half of a typical American household’s daily electricity usage.
Where Are the Best Places to Collect Solar Energy?
Generally, areas closer to the equator are ideal, while the polar extremities are the least productive. Additionally, drier climates are better than areas with more frequent rainfall.
Global Solar Atlas’s map details areas where the sun’s rays are the strongest, and these could be among the best places for solar capture. …….