How Costly is a Solar Power System?

A solar power system generally consists of solar cells or the photovoltaic cells, connected to it is the photovoltaic regulators, then the lead-acid batteries, the inverter and finally the generator or the grid.

To any average house the installation of this system may be a bit costly, because, the present cost of installation works out to be $10,000 for the production of 1 kilowatt home solar system. To install such a system it takes hardly 1-2 days and the system can start working soon after.

The interesting fact is that though the initial installation cost may seem to be high the advantages of installation are many. Specifically speaking, a 1 kilowatt per hour power producing panel requires only about 100 square feet of area and this area can be the roof top also, so no special location is required. This produces electric energy of around 1600 Kilo Watt Hour per year during sunny days and 250 KWH in cloudy days where the suns heat is available for 5.5 hours and 2.5 hours daily respectively.

Another important factor in solar power is that we can use it directly to heat water thereby reducing the cost of electricity for heating water. It is observed that in a year the amount of electricity used to heat water in US alone works up to 30% of the total power consumed, when we use solar heaters this cost is completely free.

The solar electricity can be used for different purposes like cooking too which reduces our dependency on other fossil fuels. When we use a back up system the electricity can be obtained continuously and can also be stored in batteries for emergency use.

There are some useful tips to harness higher energy from the incident rays. These are:

• Orientation – the orientation of panels is very important because it decides the amount of rays incident on the panels. In the northern hemisphere the orientation should be towards the south and vice versa in the southern hemisphere.

• Location – the panel has to be located in a shade free area where suns radiation can reach. Roof tops are ideal. The amount of energy actually harnessed depends wholly on the location. Hence a proper weather study helps to tap higher energy.

• Number of panels – the number of panels to produce 1KWH of electric energy is about 10; this number can be increased if and when necessary.
Though the initial costs are high the cost of power after installation is completely free. This reduces the entire electricity bill thereafter. It reduces the cost of burning of 170lbs of coal and 300lbs of CO2 from being emitted in to the atmosphere in a year.

Thus we are able to get high quality, best free energy and no bills.