Solar Panels: The Power Plate

by RAJ KAMAL Technology, Travel,Health & Medical

According to Thomas Edison, “We are like farmers dicing down the area around our house for fuel when we should be using inexhaustible sources of energy like the sun “. Being a renewable source of energy, the sun is the most consistent source of power and extracting that energy directly into a usable form (known as solar power) is the best way to consume renewable sources for operational energy. While depending on the sun for the extraction of energy is not a rocket science thing, its simplistic approach and eased setup help people to adopt solar panels more efficiently with almost zero maintenance.

India encourages manufacturers to adopt solar energy. Evolution, advancements, and diverse tax rebates allow this era to adopt green technology, and just like every other packet of a wafer, this packet of solar energy also consists of some easter egg moments and surprises. and which package to choose according to your savour and need is the question.

Solar panels can be classified based on:

1. Capacity:

Finalize a panel according to your daily power consumption that can be identified with the help of the current electricity bill and hence choose the panel with varied power output.

2. Area of installation:

Solar panel output depends upon the panel’s surface area capturing the light. If you have an unshaded or uncovered installation area, then monocrystalline or polycrystalline solar panels are an ideal choice as they dispense maximum yields from direct sunlight absorption. If you have a shaded area of installation then amorphous or thin film-based solar panels is a patent form for you as it comes with power optimizers connected to a normal inverter that works on light reflections rather than direct sunlight.

3. Efficiency:

The quality of silicon embedded is directly proportional to the Solar panel's efficiency. If your top priority is the efficiency you should go with the monocrystalline solar panels with micro-inverters build-up of purest silicon material best suited for highest absorption of sunlight and hence extracting out the highest possible electrical energy with the highest conversion rate. Whereas polycrystalline and amorphous build uses a homogenous mixture of metals and silicon with a pre-requisite industry average of 16-18%.

4. Temperature coefficient:

Panel degradation caused due to the continuous trapping of heat referred to the temperature coefficient affecting the operational efficiency. a panel having a lower coefficient per degree Celsius works well in extreme climatic conditions comes with central solar inverters for better efficiency. Amorphous panels have the highest degree of coefficient and hence they failed to stand out in the extreme heat caused due to direct sunlight.

5. Subsidies:

Today, governments are emphasizing on higher solar power adoption rates and hence providing 30-50% of tax rebates for the solar panel installation. With solar panel manufacturers like Toshiba and Mitsubishi coming in authorities are now able to install the solar panels free of cost with 10 years of free maintenance ensuring green future and smokeless power production.