Posts Tagged ‘solar power cost review’
Solar Power Cost Review would be more beneficial, if we touch basis on electrical aspect of the technology. To have a clear mind on this topic, I like you to shut the solar panel topic off your mind temporarily, and consider these rather simple concepts explained below:
There are 3 quantities when we talk about any electrical or electronic circuit. Whether it is a simple electric kettle, a high tech iPhone, or even a computer controlled navigation system for a solar powered space ship orbiting the earth; these 3 quantities hold true.
They are Voltage, Current, and Resistance. Later on we would explain how these relate to our topic of solar power cost blog.
If somebody explains to me what the heat is, or what a heavy item is; I can understand it well because I am able to relate to them, I can experience them. But how about voltage, current, and resistance, how I can interpret them? The only thing I can relate to is voltage and that is because I stock a nail into my electrical outlet when I was young. I still can feel it!
Perhaps a simple example will give us an insight. Let’s consider a water reservoir tank 100 feet above the ground. It delivers water from the tank to a nearby valve via a two-inch pipe. I can imagine the higher the tank is above the ground, the more water pressure I would get when I open the valve. That pressure can be taught as voltage. When we talk about a solar panel being able to supply 17 volts, we are referring to the amount of pressure that panel can create in electrical concept.
The current is analogous to the amount of water flow when we open the reservoir tank valve. The resistance of the system is determined by the pipe carrying the water, in our example we used a 2 inch pipe. Of course if we use a larger diameter pipe, we get more water flow. If we lower the reservoir tank height (voltage), we get less water flow. All 3 quantities seem to be related; I mean; changing one will affect the other one.
The relationship between these quantities is expressed as:
Potential Difference (or Voltage) = Current times Resistance.
It is written as V=I.R for simplicity.
Say, we have a heating element with a resistance of 60 Ohms. If we connect that across a 240 Volts source, we will be drawing 4 amps of current. That is because:
V=I.R 240=I x 60 (240 equals, I times 60), therefore:
I=4
Now let’s get back to our photovoltaic panel discussion. Those 3 quantities come into play when considering a solar panel, a solar panel charger, or a solar power inverter. In a PV, there are more detailed specifications like power wattage, short circuit current and etc. We will discuss those topics in our future blogs.
When we are employing any electrical Green Energy system, we are interested in the amount of current we can draw out of them. The more amperage (current) the overall system can provide us the better it can benefit our everyday electrical usage demand.
Considering the solar power cost, we can conclude that a solar panel capable of providing 34 volts will be almost twice more powerful than a 17 volts PV. This fact is reflected in the power capacity specification of the solar module. Please, stay tuned for more facts on this growing field.
Thanks for your time,
Jay Eld