If you have been scouring the net looking at solar panels then you know that the pre assembled solar panels can run from $6-30 thousand dollars. Now for us mere mortals this is simply not a financial option.

But the good news is that a solar panel is not rocket science. In fact right now in an elementary school somewhere there are 8 year olds building and using solar panels for a science experiments.

Frankly you can probably get everything you need to build your own solar panel for as little as $200. And some of the parts may be available for free - if you know where to look.

If you want to start building your own solar panel > click to that link and read more.

Thin Film Solar Panels are made up of a lightweight and flexible material which can be rolled up and easily transported. Thus, they are very useful as a source of portable solar power.

The following are some basic facts about Thin Film Solar Panels:

Any person who has ever used a solar-powered calculator has had “hands on” experience with Thin Film Photovoltaics. This technology has been with us for years, creating the solar cell strips which are used to power calculators

Thin film technology has now evolved to a point where we can mass-produce solar panels, through the use of machines not unlike printing presses.

The substance used to “print” thin film solar panels is called solar ink.

Solar ink can be made in any color. In fact, it is possible to design the inks in such a way as to make use of different parts of the light spectrum.

Solar presses print thin film solar panels called solar rolls. A solar roll is 13 inches wide and can be up to 2400 feet long.

A solar roll can be cut to the required size after the solar ink has been printed onto it.

The electrical connections in a solar roll are automatically welded in by laser. This takes away a lot of the time which is required to construct our “conventional” solar panels.

Once solar technology reaches a cost effectiveness, of $1.00 per watt, its prices will be competitive with conventional fossil fuels. TFPV is rapidly approaching this benchmark and could possibly beat this in the near future.

Solar ink can be printed onto fabrics, plastics and metals, allowing one to design solar panels for a wide range of products, each tailored to their specific needs.

Thin film photo voltaic solar panels are not as effective as solid solar panels. It’s the fact that it is so much cheaper and lighter than conventional solar panels, that gives it the “edge”.

The U.S. military is extremely interested in the development of thin-film technology, and spent 1.7 million dollars at one laboratory last year in order to facilitate the development of thin film photovoltaics. It’s interested in using thin film photovoltaics for troop communication devices and to reduce the heat signatures when troops using conventional generators.

Solar shades and tents are now available, using thin film photovoltaics, that provide up to 2kw of power. This allows them to operate laptops, communication devices, TVs and much more.

Thin film photovoltaic devices are now widely available on the consumer market. A good example of this is the flexible Brunton SolarRoll which comes in several sizes.

A thin film flexible solar panel weighing less than a pound is capable of recharging a laptop. Due to its flexibility, it can be rolled up and transported easily.

Thin film photovoltaics are also a realistic source of emergency power. This makes them a handy and economic addition to emergency preparedness kits and wilderness survival kits.

Current research on thin film photovoltaics is aimed at increasing the power output of thin film solar panels, should it achieve this goal there is a very good possibility that we will have solved the problem cheap clean renewable energy.

For more information on solar power, visit Solar Power and Alternative Energy.

Photovoltaic cells—those black squares an array of which comprises a solar panel—are getting more efficient, and gradually less expensive, all the time, thanks to ever-better designs which all them to focus the gathered sunlight on a more and more concentrated point. The size of the cells is decreasing as their efficiency rises, meaning that each cell becomes cheaper to produce and at once more productive. As far as the aforementioned cost, the price of producing solar power components per watt hour has come down to $4.00 at the time of this writing. Just 17 years ago, it was nearly double that cost.

Solar powered electricity generation is certainly good for the environment, as this alternative form of producing solar power gives off absolutely zero emissions into the atmosphere and is merely utilizing one of the most naturally occurring of all things as its driver. Solar collection cells are becoming slowly but surely ever more practical for placing upon the rooftops of people’s homes, and they are not a difficult system to use for heating one’s home, creating hot water, or producing electricity. In the case of using the photovoltaic cells for hot water generation, the system works by having the water encased in the cells, where it is heated and then sent through your pipes.

Photovoltaic cells are becoming increasingly better at collecting sufficient radiation from the sun even on overcast or stormy days. One company in particular, Uni-Solar, has developed solar collection arrays for the home that work well on inclement days, by way of a technologically more advanced system that stores more energy at one time during sunlit days than previous or other arrays.

There is actually another solar power components available for use called the PV System. The PV System is connected to the nearest electrical grid; whenever there is an excess of solar energy being collected at a particular home, it is transferred to the grid for shared use and as a means of lowering the grid’s dependence on the hydroelectrically-driven electricity production. Being connected to the PV System can keep your costs down as compared to full-fledged solar energy, while at once reducing pollution and taking pressure off the grid system. Some areas are designing centralized solar collection arrays for small towns or suburban communities.

Some big-name corporations have made it clear that they are also getting into the act of using solar power (a further indication that solar generated energy is becoming an economically viable alternative energy source). Google is putting in a 1.6 megawatt solar power generation plant on the roof of its corporate headquarters, while Wal Mart wants to put in an enormous 100 megawatt system of its own.

Nations such as Japan, Germany, the United States, and Switzerland have been furthering the cause of solar energy production by providing government subsidies or by giving tax breaks to companies and individuals who agree to utilize solar power for generating their heat or electrical power. As technology advances and a greater storage of solar collection materials is made available, more and more private investors will see the value of investing in this “green” technology and further its implementation much more.

What are thin film solar panels, and why are they so important? What do they mean for broad-scale solar power solutions?

Thin film solar panels operate in the same manner that regular solar panels do, the only difference being that they are a lot thinner and require far less materials and energy for construction.

This might not sound particularly spectacular, but in fact it is. It is a major breakthrough in solar technology.

Why are Thin Film Solar Panels so Important?

The reason thin film solar technology is considered to be such a major breakthrough is because, until now, the two barriers that have prevented solar energy and solar technology from becoming mainstream energy providers have been the 1. the cost to produce them, and 2. the problems in mass-producing them rapidly.

Both of these problems have been solved. This paves the way for rapid expansion of clean energy in the form of solar power.

What is Thin Film Solar Technology?

Thin film solar technology is a method of putting extremely thin films of photovoltaic material on to a thin layer of backing for support.

This is made possible through new inventions, such as solar ink. A photovoltaic material is dissolved into a solution, that is then printable as ink. It is then printed out, similarly to how books are printed.

Because of the invention of solar ink, it is possible to print photovoltaic material onto thin layers of plastic fabric or metal. This printing process is extremely fast, and thus it allows you to mass-produce solar panels at a high speed and at only a fraction of the cost.

Whereas, in the past, solar panels were bulky and weighed a serious amount, thin film solar panels weigh almost nothing and take up almost no space. This means that solar panels can now be produced at only 5 percent of the cost, as compared to our old bulky solar panels.

Uses of Thin Film Solar Panels

The ability to literally print solar panels onto fabric, plastic and metal has opened up new horizons in the application of solar power.

Some of the uses now possible are as follows:

• Rollable solar chargers
• AA battery solar charger
• Water purification systems
• Foldable solar chargers
• Weather stations
• RVs Campers Boats GPS devices
• Wildlife feeders
• Metal roofing Membrane roofing Architectural fabric
• Cell phone chargers
• GPS asset tracking
• Military, Police and Emergency Services:
• Sol laptop chargers
• Warning/safety lights
• GPS chargers
• Satellite phone chargers

The above are just some of the ways that solar power can be and is being used, with the advent of thin film solar panels. I am sure that many more uses will be added, now that the price and manufacturing barrier of solar power have been broken.

Learn more about solar technology at Alternative Energy and Solar Panels.

A solar tower is a device that converts solar energy (heat from the sun) into electricity. Solar towers are suitable for large-scale power generation.

The Basic Component Parts of a Solar Tower Energy Plant

* Solar Tower - The solar tower is simply a large structure with a boiler (a tank used to heat liquids) at the top. The boiler collects the heat from the sun. It is also referred to as the “central tower” or “power tower”.

* Heliostats - These are movable mirrors that track the sun and reflect the sunlight at the top of the solar tower where the heat is collected. These mirrors move as the sun moves, so as to continuously reflect maximum sunlight toward the tower.

* Heat Transfer Fluid - We use the term “heat transfer fluid” because not all solar towers use the same. Early solar towers used water to collect the heat from the sun. Some of the newer solar towers use liquid sodium. Whichever liquid is used, it is referred to as “heat transfer fluid.”

* Heat Storage - Because we still want to generate energy at night after the sun is gone, newer solar towers have methods of storing heat so that it can be used during the night to continue generating electricity.

* Steam Generator - As stated earlier, liquid sodium is now used to collect the heat, and the liquid sodium is then used to generate steam.

* Steam Turbine - This is a generator that uses steam to generate electrical power. This is the same set-up as is used in a conventional power plant.

How Does a Solar Tower Work?

Computer controlled mirrors (called heliostats) follow the sun, adjusting their position as the sun moves, and reflect sunlight toward the top of the solar tower, where a heat collector tank is located. Of course, more than one heliostat is needed, so an arrangement of hundreds or even thousands of heliostats is used.

The combined reflected sunlight of these heliostats can produce temperatures as high as 550 degrees, Celsius at their focal point.

Thus, the liquid inside the boiler is rapidly heated and is then pumped downward into storage tanks, or is pumped directly into to a heat exchanger where it is used to make steam.

The steam produced by the heat exchanger is then led through a steam turbine, which uses the steam to generate electricity.

As an interesting note, liquid sodium can be used as a heat transfer/storage liquid, because of its ability to hold and store heat efficiently. Large storage tanks can be used to hold the heated liquid sodium. The stored “heat” can then be used at night, so as to continue generating steam which is used to generate electricity.

Currently, there are two solar towers in operation using the above design. The 64 MW Nevada Solar One and 11 MW PS10 solar power tower in Spain.

Solar tower energy is categorized as CSP (concentrated solar power) technology. There are several other power plant designs which use concentrated solar power technology. This includes the parabolic trough and the solar dish engine.

Find more information about Solar Power, Alternative Energy, and broad-scale solutions for Solar Power

A solar cell is a device which changes sunlight into electricity. A more technically term for a solar cell is a photovoltaic cell.

The term “photo” derives from the Greek word for “light,” and the term “voltaic” comes from the word “volt” which means “electrical force.” A “cell” is a small receptacle or container containing electrodes which generate power.

Thus, a photovoltaic cell is a container that creates electric force, through light.

Whereas a solar cell can generate electricity from any light source, its intended use is the collection of solar energy from the sun.

How a Solar Cell Works

The solar cell works as follows:

Photons (which are particles of light in sun rays) hit the surface of the solar cell and are absorbed a semiconductor, such as silicon.

These photons (bits of sunlight) knock electrons loose from the atoms inside the semiconductor. The photons then push the electrons along, leaving a “gap” in the atom. Another electron is then pulled from an adjacent atom to fill the gap. And so an electrical flow is generated.

The simplicity of this is that one atom has an extra electron, and the other atom is missing one. This is referred to as a “difference in potential.” Nature, wanting to remain balanced, tries to even things out by pulling another electron from the neighboring atom.

A solar panel is comprised of a group of solar cells which are linked together to produce the desired amount of electrical energy.

A group of solar cells linked together can also be referred to as a “module.” Thus the terms “solar panel,” and “solar module,” are synonymous to each other, and essentially mean the exact same thing. “Solar panel” is the more common term, and “solar module” is the technical term.

One can use Solar Panels individually or one can link several together in order to generate more electricity. When a group of solar panels are linked together, it is called a “solar array”. The more solar panels are included in a solar array, the more power they produce.

Solar Power is a clean and virtually unlimited source of energy. I say “virtually unlimited” because the sun itself won’t last forever. But we won’t have to worry about that for the next few billion years.

Since solar power is a clean energy source which has been around for decades, one might wonder why its not used more. The answer to this lies partially in the cost of producing solar panels, as well as in the efficiency of the solar panels.

We are currently in the second generation of solar panel technology and verging on the third. A lot has changed since the first generation. Solar panels a are becoming a viable source of clean energy.

The solar cells of earlier times were relatively large and bulky compared to our current models. In view of the amount of energy and material required to produce them, and the amount of energy they actually produced, using solar energy was more costly than using fossil fuels. The only exception was in places where no fossil fuels were available, such as in space.

With the second-generation solar cells, we attempted to tackle this exact problem. We attempted improve manufacturing techniques so as to reduce the costs, materials and energy needed for the production of solar cells.

Recently, major advances have been made in the production of solar cells. These advances have reduced production costs.

One contribution in this area was the development of techniques to coat glass or ceramic materials with very thin layers of semi-conductive substances. This made it possible to produce solar panels using only a fraction of the semi-conductive material that was required earlier. The production of solar panels using this second-generation technology is referred to as “Thin Film Technology.” (See also Thin Film Solar Technology.)

Third-generation solar energy technologies are currently being researched and developed. The objective is to improve the power of solar cells even further (while keeping production costs to a minimum) in which case thirty to sixty percent of the sunlight hitting the panels will be converted into electricity. (Currently, solar panels convert only about twenty percent.)

But regardless of third generation solar technology, the second-generation solar cell is efficient enough to make solar technology viable - and a host of new solar-powered products have hit the consumer market.

Solar-powered calculators have been in use for a while now, we’ve all seen them. We have even seen a few other novelty devices hit the market. But its only in the last few years that solar devices have come into serious and practical use.

The last two years in particular have seen a virtual explosion of solar devices hitting the market. Solar flashlights (I’ve often wandered what use they were), solar-powered radios, and, recently, solar battery chargers.

One can also now find a wide range of portable solar chargers and panels, which are lightweight and easy to transport, yet capable of providing a decent amount of power in even the most remote locations. Solar chargers are becoming a standard part of wilderness survival kits and emergency preparedness kits.

All of this is a result of the developments in solar cell technology, and the coming of the Solar Age.

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Learn more about solar energy at Facts about Solar Energy.