 "Photo: © NCSU Student Media 2011")
© NCSU Student Media 2011
Working at the NC Solar Center, Pennsylvania engireers Jeff Sloat from Summit Electric, and Matt Wilson, from Secco Inc, install solar panels as part of a national training course put on by SunPower Corporation April 14.
According to Lupo, passive solar energy pertains mostly to the construction of a building. Examples of this type of solar energy are seen throughout N.C. State's Solar House. It has amenities like natural lighting fixtures, which maximize outdoor lighting in the interior of a building.
The solar house also includes a large, south-facing sunspace—a two-story room with large windows to heat the house in the winter. The solar house also has thick, brick Trombe walls that help heat the bedrooms by providing solar heat. These walls store heat and slowly release it throughout the day. The basic concept of passive solar energy is using what is already there without having to convert it. These are very basic forms of solar energy, but take planning when building a structure.
Active solar energy is the more commonly recognized of the two, with its poster child: the solar panel. Yet, solar panels, while being well-known, are not well-understood.
According to Lupo, solar panels consist of two layers of silicon with a metal conductor in between. One of the layers is ingrained with atoms that have fewer electrons, usually boron atoms, the other with atoms that have more electrons, like phosphorous. When this system is exposed to sunlight, photons, the source of energy from the sun, force the electrons off of their atoms, which then travel between the two layers through the metal conductor, resulting in the production of electric current.
This current is then sent to the electric company via the grid, or the network that provides electricity from the electric company to the consumer. The electric company uses this energy to support the grid and pays whomever provides the energy. Thus, buildings that have solar panels do not necessarily run on solar energy, but they do provide this environmentally-friendly energy for the grid to use.
This raises the question of whether or not people who harness the sun's energy through solar panels are doing it for the economic reasons, or strictly for the environment.
"Most people go solar for environmental concerns, but there is an economic incentive," Lupo said. "[Solar is] not a quick payback, so you have to have interests in other areas like the environmental impact."
The initial cost of converting a small, residential structure is about $35,000, which Lupo rationalizes as being a reason for someone to have environmental concerns and economic interests. However, once someone decides to use solar panels, there are significant tax incentives. The state has a 35 percent tax incentive, and there is also a 30 percent federal tax incentive for the installation of a solar panel system. With these incentives, the cost to install solar panels could actually be cut in half, making the payback period significantly shorter.
With a rise in alternative energy use, people may wonder what direction solar energy is headed in the years to come. Although there is research going into futuristic products like PV ink, a solar panel technology in ink form, Lupo said these ink products will not be market ready for quite a while.
However, Lupo believes that significant improvements will be made in the efficiency of active solar energy products in the near future. This will also effectively shorten the payback period of going solar by increasing the output of current, according to Lupo.
Another issue is energy storage. As it is now, the energy company grid is acting as the storage space for solar energy producers; however, if an energy storage device is made and produced, this would be a new avenue for solar energy, allowing consumers to effectively store their own energy. Lupo said this can improve cutting costs.
"The more people who invest in it [solar], the cheaper it's going to be," Lupo said.
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