Solar Power

The sun is the largest producer of energy in our solar system. Solar energy is free, and its supplies are unlimited. Using solar energy produces no air or water pollution when converting the sun’s rays into energy.

How it works

There are two main ways that we use the Sun’s energy to reduce your electric bill:

Solar Cells (really called “photovoltaic” or “photoelectric” cells) that convert light directly into electricity.

In a sunny climate, you can get enough power to run a 100W light bulb from just one square meter of solar panel.

Solar Water Heating, where heat from the Sun is used to heat water in glass panels on your roof. This means you don’t need to use so much gas or electricity to heat your water at home. Water is pumped through pipes in the panel. The pipes are painted black, so they get hot when the Sun shines on them.

Advantages

• Solar energy is free - it needs no fuel and produces no waste or pollution.
• In sunny countries, solar power can be used where there is no easy way to get electricity to a remote place.
• Handy for low-power uses such as solar powered garden lights and battery chargers

Disadvantages

• Doesn’t work at night.
• Very expensive to build solar power stations. Solar cells cost a great deal compared to the amount of electricity they’ll produce in their lifetime.
• Can be unreliable unless you’re in a very sunny climate. Solar power isn’t much use except for low-power applications, as you need a very large area of solar panels to get a decent amount of power. However, for these applications it’s definitely worthwhile.