As solar panel technology advances, the image people have of solar technology will change as well. The old images of large, boxy solar panels sitting on rooftop hoping to catch some part of the sun’s rays are slowing fading as people see the newer, smaller and smarter solar power panel advances emerge.
As with anything related to the sun there is going to be heat involved, this heat can also be collected and used to heat both your water and incoming air for your ventilation systems using solar power panels. Commonly known as a photovoltaic panel, or PV panel, solar power panels are lined with a semi-conductive material, typically silicon based that produces electricity when sunlight passes through it. This lining is called the solar cell. The electricity then travels through the conductive material into the electrical system that powers your home or business.
Originally, the solar panel or PV panels were restricted to big square or rectangular-shaped enclosures. Recently, the manufacturing process for solar cells has developed tremendously, opening new doors to significant changes in the way solar power panels can be integrated into your business or home. As solar cells become as a more practical alternative to energy problems, solar panels have become easier to install and can be made a part of roofing material or even parts of windows. Building Integrated Photovoltaics, or BIPV, is the emerging technology of integrating solar cells into all kinds of building materials, so that a building can be green from the ground up.
Solar cells integrated into your roofing material offer you the same protective properties as traditional asphalt shingles while collecting the suns energy at the same time. The same technology can also be applied to exterior walls, skylights, windows, awnings, walkway coverings, car ports, and it seems as though every day a new way to integrate solar power panels into everyday materials becomes available.
There are a variety of solar power panel assemblies that are mounted off of the building itself. The two most common are ground mounted or pole mounted fixtures. These features are valuable as they allow for optimal placement of the solar panels where they would receive the greatest exposure to the sun, thus allowing for greater flexibility in both building design and solar power system design. Although solar power panels will generate some power with indirect exposure to the suns rays, you will only generate the most efficient amount of solar power with direct exposure of the solar panel to full sunlight.
When solar power panels are ground-mounted, they are attached to metal frames, often with motorized mounts. These mounts allow the panels to move so they can follow the path of the sun as it travels throughout the day. While the frames are often made our of standard construction materials, they could possibly be constructed out of any other more green materials.
Pole-mounted structures, mounted to either the side or top of a metal pole, can also be built to have the solar panels move with or track the path of the sun to get the optimum amount of solar exposure during the course of the day.