Solar panels, energy, and chargers

Welcome to sunamp.com! Our Web site is dedicated to bringing you the best information available on all things solar. The sun is a powerful source of energy, and understanding how we harness that power will enable you to make better decisions regarding your energy needs. Here you’ll find the information you need, without the sales pitch. We have information on everything from solar RV kits, to home solar panels, from water heating to water fountains. Through it all, we strive to give an impartial account of the technology available without espousing any brand or product. We’ll leave the sales pitches to the salesmen. So, if you see anything you would like to know more about, or you see something you think we should include in our site, please email us. Who knows, the next time you come visit our site; you may see your suggestion published.

The power generated by stars is the most abundant form of energy in the known universe. Granted, we can’t know all that much about the rest of the universe until we get out and see it, but from what we do know, stars are the bee’s knees, so to speak. That means that in our particular neck of the universe, our sun is the best energy source there is. In fact, the sun showers us with more energy every hour than humanity uses in a year. So where does all that energy go? Well much of it is used in heating the earth. Things would get really cold very quickly without the sun. Some is used by plants, which lays the foundation for the food chain.

The sun is also the root source of nearly every other power source we have now. From fossil fuels to wind, they are all derived from the sun’s energy. And that’s really the rub when it comes to utilizing solar energy. It may give us an overabundance of energy, but it isn’t in a form we can use. We have to take solar energy and transform it into another form of energy, one that we can make use of.

That’s where things such as solar power come into play. It is one thing to theoretically transfer one form of power to another, but when you need a specific type, such as electricity, it becomes more complicated. Electricity is not potential energy, it does not stand still- it is in perpetual motion. Even batteries don’t store electricity, they store electrical potential.

Sunlight transfers extremely well into heat, because nearly every substance on earth has a color. If you have color that means that you absorb most of the sun’s rays, reflecting back the bandwidth that an eye perceives as color. However most materials don’t absorb sunlight and emit electricity. There are a few; they belong to the family of semi-conductors. The one utilized for solar panels is silicon, which is used in crystal form. The crystallized silicon can emit a weak electric current when struck by sunlight. If these crystals are laid on in an array, the current can be strengthened to a usable level.  This is the basis for the modern solar panel.

There have been many advances in the field of photovoltaic research in the past decade. For instance scientists recently utilized a tri-layered crystal to achieve a laboratory conversion rate of over 60%! That achievement is remarkable because it is more than double the currently marketed conversion rate. The increase stems from the ability of each layer of the crystal to absorb a different wavelength of light. Much research has also been done in the field of thin film arrays. These arrays are less efficient than market panels, but they are also much less expensive. Best of all, they could be applied like paint to automobiles and building exteriors, giving them a huge market that is virtually untapped.

There are other alternative energy sources, like hydroelectric, geothermal, and wind energy, which uses home wind turbines to generate electricity. Get informed, and get green!

 

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