Energy, such a thing that is just as important as oxygen to living beings. It is always estimated that in every ten years our requirements for energy consumption grows by double. With such an enormous amount of growing technology, 24x7 electricity to every house and production of resources costs us with such a massive amount of energy that every year we have to make a new energy consumption plan. In future, our energy consumption will grow rapidly and for that, we need to find some never-ending sources. Sources like fossil-fuels,bio-fuels and other mineral fuels are estimated to be exhausted with our growth rate of energy consumption. Elon Musk and his companies have always stepped forward to find solutions for the world's problems. In the upper atmosphere, the Earth receives 174 petawatts of solar radiation. In 2002, the energy received from the solar radiation was more than one hour than the world uses in one year. So now this can be seen that our star is the source of life on our planet and we can use it for our future energy needs. So far in our articles, we have seen how Elon Musk has brought solutions to each problem. In the year 2006 two cousins of Musk made an initiative of manufacturing solar panels. Well, the idea was little but when we make an idea for the benefit of mankind, it is already known that it is never going to fail. That company is now a subsidiary of Tesla Inc., the company of Musk which is developing technology for the better and effective use of solar energy for our future energy consumption. If the energy of the sun can be used effectively then it is estimated that the future energy need will be safeguarded and the pollution level will be halved. Tesla, the car manufacturing company has always developed ways to become environmentally friendly. Now we are talking about the SolarCity.
Description
Two cousins of Elon Musk Peter and Lydon Rive founded the company SolarCity in 2006 which was based on the suggestion given by Musk himself. By 2013, SolarCity had become the leading solar installed in the U.S. In the same year, they also purchased Paramount Solar from Paramount Equity for $120 million. At that time the company was able to generate 870 MW of solar power. By 2015, they contributed 28% of the total non-utility solar energy in the U.S. On August 1, 2016, Tesla announced it would be acquiring the whole company in a $2.8 billion merger. Musk's company Tesla had always tried to bring new way towards sustainability and by acquiring SolarCity, they wanted to move the world from hydrocarbon fuel-based economy to solar electric-based economy.
How solar panels work
The main product developed by SolarCity is solar panels. Solar panels if you look are itself a new generation technology which has been used recently. A general-purpose solar panel work by absorbing sunlight with photovoltaic cells. Then it generates direct current from the absorbed sunlight which then converts it to alternating current with the help of an inverter which is used by most of the electrical appliances and excess electricity is fed to the main grid.
A solar panel basically consists of a layer of silicon cells, a glass casing, a metal frame and wires that allow electricity to flow. Silicon is an element with conductive properties which allows the panel to absorb sunlight and convert it to electricity. When sunlight interacts with silicon cells, the electrons in it begins to move which then sets a flow of direct current. This direct current is then captured and fed into a solar inverter which later converts it to alternating current.
Solar power utilisation
Well, there was a time we used to think and dream of a world where most of our energy need would be fulfilled by solar energy but now it is our requirement. Every day tons of harmful gases are just flying above our heads which we know are dangerous but still, we are bound to use the source of energy. Human started the use of solar power as a source of energy form the last century but a way longer ago we had been using our star for various purposes. SolarCity is one such idea that can make the use of solar energy more efficient. Here are some of the most demanding utilisation of solar energy;
For the sake of our non-stop growth, we never stop using any source of energy. The continuing use of non-sustainable greenhouse energy sources leads to fatal global warming. Rising temperature means very hot days. In summers, there might be a day come where without proper ventilation it may become difficult to stay at home. Ventilation itself is a very good idea to make home cool. Usually, we make the process of ventilation as environment-friendly but when we utilise our precious sources of energy like hydrocarbon-based or electric-based but it actually not a very nature-friendly idea. Self-contained roof vent fans that operate fully on solar energy can be used to avoid electrical uses.
Man uses millions of gallons of water every day for various purposes. Obviously, we used to warm it with some sort of heater so that every bacteria can be wiped. But with solar power, many companies are developing ideas to fill the demand of people for water warming. Usually, with solar energy, we have two choices to boil water. Active solar water heating system makes use of mechanical pumps to circulate water from the rooftop water heating panel to collect in the collection tanks. Passive solar water heating system has no such mechanical arrangement, it simply works on the concept of natural heat rising. It is usually cheaper than the active counterpart with some performance compromisation.
In winter most people opt for the higher-order cost house heating system. In the equatorial region, it has been recorded that every winter the sun radiate millions of joules of energy every year. It is a very cost-effective idea to use that energy for house heating. Hot water systems have emerged as a very good idea for house heating. This uses solar collector panels to heat the water that circulates through tubes throughout the whole house. This kind of systems provides heating to the entire house as well as hot water for various different purposes. Hot air heating systems are also used to provide heating to the house. The working of the system is quite simple. It gatherers the hot air that has been heated by the sun. Usually, these systems are designed for single rooms only but the more sophisticated versions may serve the whole house.
Giga NewYork
Buffalo, New York, in 2014 SolarCity announced New manufacturing facility known as Gigafactor 2. Their initial plans were to manufacture a 1.2 million square foot facility to employ 1500 employees that would cost $900 million. This plant was expected to be the biggest solar plant in the U.S. This project was initiated in 2014 and expected to be complete by 2016. In 2017 Elon Musk announced that his company Tesla's solar roof products would be manufactured further in the Buffalo factory. In February 2020 the company reported having 1500 employee as expected.
Solar Roofs
Roofs are such important structures under which we get a better sleep every night. Every year about 5 million roofs are changed by the owners to get better protection for their houses. Fortunately, these roofs can be a great source of energy production for the whole house. SolarCity is planning further to get better technology implemented in every person's house. The statement was given by musk himself during a call. He introduced solar roofs as their new product that is going to be manufacture in their buffalo, NY facility. Musk statement as if the roof was in its end then no one is going to put a solar panel over it as it may get damaged and it can be a huge market loss for the company. "So why not have a solar roof that's better in many other ways as well" - he stated. SolarCity also sells
lithium-ion batteries system that stores power generated by solar roofs' panels. Further SolarCity plans involve $750 million manufacturing facility at Buffalo to produce solar panels that will generate a gigawatt of power every year.
Solar panels
The main product of any solar company is solar panels and SolarCity claims to build better solar panels than any other company at a very attractive price point. Although it is clear that Tesla's SolarCity is one of the most famous solar companies in the U.S but still they don't manufacture their own solar cells. After acquiring SolarCity, Tesla had a partnership with Panasonic to build solar panels. The idea was to use Panasonic's HIT cells to manufacture solar panels. Later due to trade loss, Panasonic had to take a departure from Tesla. After Panasonic's departure, Tesla is now working with Hanwha to build solar panels. SolarCity's solar panels' aesthetic appearance makes them so special. Being black in colour they are designed to absorb more sunlight.
Solar panels efficiency and cost
Elon Musk has been always trying to bring his newest and cutting edge technology available to people at a value for money. His solar technology had always aimed towards the people who can make use of it at a very good cost. Tesla makes solar panels and roofs in a very wide range of lengths. Their panels range from $8200 to $32800 according to the length of the house and how much power it needs. For an average house with an electricity cost of $100, $175 and $200 per month, Tesla recommends their 8.16 KW, 12.24 KW and 16.32 KW systems respectively.
The current solar panels that SolarCity delivers has a power efficiency of 19% with a temperature coefficient of 0.39%, that means with every single degree drop of temperature, the power efficiency will decrease only by 0.39%.
There isn't any doubt left in assuming the fact that Elon Musk is the most revolutionary person in this century. From all the way down here we came to know about
Starlink,
Neuralink,
Hyperloop and SolarCity is some of the few masterpieces of Musk's ideas. SolarCity can be a great success in human history Musk says but the fact is that he is creating history himself. All the way from the few decades the world has seen a great scarcity in energy production and management. Millions of vehicles and machines that run every single second consume energy that can one day totally extinguished. For the sake of it, every nation is planning for some sustainable energy source. Musk's company Tesla had always adopted with the motive of using sustainable energy through their electric vehicles and now all other solar equipment.
"If somthing is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour" - Elon Musk
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This is one of the solar energy applications that has gained a lot of momentum in recent years.
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