Electricity Generation from Solar Power

H.N.T. Wijesekara / 120716U

Abstract
Today the whole world is in an energy crisis. Electric energy is the mostly used energy type.
Since the costs of electricity generation are getting high people have considered on
generating electricity using environment friendly alternative methods. Using solar power to
generate electricity needed is one of the best options available. There are many methods of
using solar power to generate electricity. Thermal methods and photovoltaic methods are the
mostly used methods.
Introduction
Discovery of electricity has changed the day to day life of everybody on the planet.
Undoubtedly electricity is the most integral part in modern technology and without it most of
the equipment that we use every day simply will not work. The average solar power
25.4 1015

intercepted at any time by the earth's surface is around

Watts while the world
annual power consumption is about 23,000 TWh. So solar power harnessed electricity would
be a good option to the prevailing energy crisis.
Solar energy is sustainable and renewable. It is clean, environment friendly. The generation of
solar electricity needs a little maintenance. Once the solar panels are installed it needs little
maintenance in order to ensure that it is working in the desired manner. Solar electricity
generation does not produce any noise. Also there are continuous advancements and
improvements in solar panel technology which makes it even more cost effective. Solar
electricity power plants produce zero emissions during their operation.
Methodology
Photovoltaic Systems

Here the Solar panels convert the solar energy into electric energy. This current is used to
charge a battery bank and the output from the battery is converted to AC using an inverter and
then used to power the household appliances.
Thermal methods

In Solar thermal electric energy generation method the light from the sun is concentrated to
generate thermal energy. The heat produced is used to run a heat engine, which turns a turbine
coupled to a generator and produce electricity. The working fluid used in the system is heated
by the concentrated sunlight. The fluid used can be either a liquid or a gas. There are different
fluids used and different types of heat engines used.
Net-metering

Use of typical solar electric systems which use battery banks with invertors for energy
storage is generally expensive. Therefore the use of solar powered electricity generation
systems is retarded in the areas where the grid is available. Net metering is one method which
was introduced to promote electric generation using solar power. In net-metering the
electricity produced by solar panels in given directly to the grid In this method the generally
used utility meter is replaced with a net-meter which is also known as an import/export meter.
Here the export means the energy added to the grid and import is the energy consumed from
the grid. At the end of each billing month, CEB will read the consumers export and import
energy meters and the electricity bill will be prepared based on the difference of the readings
of the two meters. If the export is greater than the import in any billing period, the consumer
will receive an export credit, which will be added to the export of the next month. If the
consumer has consumed more units than he has generated the he has to pay for that amount
according to the general tariff rates. Also there are many advantages of this method over
typical methods. The main advantage in that a battery bank is not needed to store electricity.
Hence costs for batteries and their maintenance will not occur in this case.
Conclusions
When we consider the Sri Lankan context the best method is net-metering because it is
relatively economical than the other methods. A 250 Watt solar power system can be
established with net-metering for a price below four hundred thousand rupees. If CEB agrees
to pay for the excess power units added to the grid by the customer, it would really encourage
the community to use solar power to harness electricity.