Video: How Is Solar Energy Used?

How Is Solar Energy Used?

Solar energy is rarely used on its own, but rather it is often used in conjunction with wind power or batteries to produce energy. Find out how solar energy is used in calculators with information from a science teacher in this free video on solar energy and science lessons.

Video Transcript

Hi I'm Steve Jones and I'm going to tell you some of the uses of solar energy. Now solar energy is one f those strange sources of energy which is very seldom used on its own. The reason for this is that the source of the energy, the sun is not always there and therefore if you don't have an alternative source the thing that you are using won't work. So for example in home use very often people will have solar panels on the roof. This will supplement a service from the main supply so you get your energy coming in from the main supply. So you get your energy coming in from the mains and its switched off when the solar panels are working but when the solar panels start to fade and it starts going dark then the mains takes over. It often is combined with wind power so a combination of wind power, solar energy, and mains energy is the most economical way of running things. Things like calculators are often giving a set of solar cells and this helps to prolong the life of the battery that you put in but you still have that second source of power the battery. There are many green sites, many green places where people try and demonstrate how efficiently you can use the energy by using solar energy, wind power, water power and so forth. Well there are lots of green sites that show this. The one problem with solar energy is the initial cost is very high and very often the cost can kind of be replaced after about ten years and then you have to replace the whole of the system as well so very often it is not actually cheaper than fossil fuel energy. An interesting use nowadays is on motorway where there are telephone points that have solar supplies. Now obviously they also have batteries but the solar panels charge up the battery and this enables them to run a lot longer and since they are a long distance away from any power supply then it is a very efficient way of doing it. So these are some ways in which solar energy is used.

How Is Solar Energy Used?

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