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Solar

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Solar Power

Robert DeNezzo
Co-Hort 130
Professor. Damato

The following is a feasibility study on the need to apply solar power for homes and the benefits to be expected from it. This report contains information on the expected benefits of using solar power for homes in place of traditional methods of power such as electricity and gas. Solar power is beneficial to consumers because it saves them money compared to the increasingly high prices of conventional methods of generation. Solar power is also beneficial to society because it is much safer for our environment than the burning of fossil fuels or the use of nuclear power that is characteristic of gas and electricity power. This report explores solar power as an alternate and superior means of power generation for homes. Solar energy is known as photovoltaic. This type means that the electricity or energy that is acquired directly from the sun’s light. In order to understand how photovoltaic energy works we must first understand light and its relation with the process of photovoltaic energy. Light is what we see all around us, it can come from different sources such as light bulbs, but for photovoltaic energy the light source is the sun. Electron movement in an atom generates light, when an electron changes its energy level, or orbit around the nucleus it absorbs energy. The electron doesn’t stay in that energy level and it moves back, when it does this the electron releases energy as a photon, or a particle of light. Light consists of waves, which are travelling energy. Waves are made up from a stream of photons. There are various types of waves; radio waves, radar, microwaves, infrared, visible light, x-rays, and gamma rays. Waves also have different properties, which are amplitude, wavelength, and frequency. Amplitude measures the wave’s height

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