Latest in Solar Energy World
India is one of the fastest growing nations when it comes to harnessing solar energy. For centuries we have been using sunlight for a number of purposes. However, with the development in the modern science we have also tapped into the potential of sunlight to produce electricity. This has come as a welcome change at a time when across the world, people are showing concern about the degrading environment and are making desperate attempts to ensure that they give a helping hand in letting the environment heal after being exploited for its resources for centuries now.
We need to understand that over utilizing anything can be termed as exploitation. There are two types of natural resources that pave way for our healthy living. While one type is exhaustible resources, the other one is the inexhaustible resources. As the name suggests, inexhaustible resources are the ones that do not get depleted anytime and would remain in nature for at least as long as life is there on earth. While the exhaustible ones come to an end at one point or the other. It is also to be noticed, that while both types of resources have been there in nature since time immemorial, we as a humans have been making use of only non renewable resources or the exhaustible resources. We are so dependent on these resources that now it has become difficult to not use these resources and shift focus on some unconventional power houses like the solar energy. The governments of all developing nations have been making serious efforts to popularize the use of solar energy on several sectors ranging from residential and commercial to industrial.
Before getting solar power systems installed the basic question that most people ask is ‘what are the latest solar products?’ There are a number of appliances and solar products that can be invested in. These solar products help save a lot of money and are low maintenance. These solar inverters or PV inverters as they are generally called are very important components of photovoltaic systems. They help convert variable direct current or DC into the utility frequency of alternate current. This current basically helps run a number of solar power enabled appliances through the electric grid or the off grid electric network in an area. Solar inverters allow the use of several ordinary appliances operated by mains through direct current. These solar inverter systems are very smart equipments that are adapted to be used with the PV arrays along with anti islanding protection and the maximum power point tracking.
There are three types of solar inverters available in the markets. The first type is that of Stand Alone inverters. These solar inverters are used in the isolated systems wherein the solar inverter fetches direct current from the batteries charged by PV arrays. There are several stand alone solar inverters that are equipped with the battery chargers. They do not usually have the anti islanding protection because these inverters do not interfere with the working of the utility grid.
The second type of solar inverter is the Grid tie inverters. These inverters are basically designed in a way that they shut down when there is loss of the utility supply or power outages. The third type of solar inverter is the battery backup inverter. Out of the three these inverters are the smart inverters that fetch energy from the batteries and manage the power through the onboard chargers and then transfer the excess energy to the utility power grid. These solar inverters can easily supply alternate current to the selected loads when there is a power outage and therefore need to have the anti islanding protection in place.
As the name suggests, solar ac is an air conditioner that utilizes solar power to run. These solar air conditioners may utilize passive solar energy, photovoltaic energy or the solar thermal energy. Out of these, the photovoltaic cells are the most common method. These PV cells are capable of providing energy to almost any type of cooling system be it the conventional one that makes use of the compressor based system or any other system. This type of solar air conditioning systems, equipped with the PV cells are mostly used for the residential usage because the rest of the systems are not ideally sized for the household requirements. Besides, it has efficient electric coolers and is easy to be installed as compared to other cooling technologies that utilize solar energy.
Another famous solar gadget that has brought a revolution is called solar car. Solar cars are basically solar vehicles that are used for the land transport. Solar cars make use of the photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into the electricity. It is fitted with the technology that is found in the aerospace, automotive industries and bicycles. Mostly these solar cars are made for the purpose of solar races. Their sizes are limited because of the amount of the power fed to the car. These smart utility vehicles are equipped with the gauges that are mostly seen in the conventional car systems. These gauges let the driver know about certain problems in the car that might raise their hood while on road. This also helps the driver keep an eye on the energy consumption of the car. While the cars that do not have gauges are equipped with the wireless telemetry system or the solar energy capture for the smooth functioning so that the driver could concentrate more on the road rather than being concerned about the possible problems that might crop up in the car.
These latest solar equipments are very unique and useful. The best part about these solar energy systems be it the solar car, solar air conditioners or the solar inverters, is that they are environment friendly and do not emit any greenhouse gases. Besides, on installation or investment in these solar products, government of several nation give tax rebate to popularize the usage of these products which further helps save that extra buck.