How Solar Power Works in Industrial Applications

How_Solar_Power_Works_in_Industrial_Applications.pdf

Solar is commonly used in industrial applications where there is no local access to power.

So, for example, we might have a well that is being used to supply water to residents, but the well is up in the mountains with no access to power. In this case we could use solar power to energize the instrumentation needed to monitor the well and distribute water.

Solar is also becoming more popular for residential and commercial use due to the ability to save money and generate your own power.

These are just a few of the options why solar is such a great option for generating power for our homes, places or work or industrial applications.

So how does it work???

First let’s discuss the hardware required for a basic solar setup. Keep in mind, these are just the basics, and larger and more advanced systems might include additional hardware that we will not discuss today.

1. Solar Panels - Converts sunlight into energy
2. Charge controllers - Tells the energy where to go
3. Inverter - Converts DC power to AC power
4. Battery - Stores energy not being used by our load

Now lets discuss how it all works

Solar panel absorbs sunlight and converts that light into energy. In this case, DC power. That power is then sent to one of two places depended out your system is set up.

It can go to an inverter, which will convert the DC power to AC power which is the type of power we find in our homes and buildings.

It can also go to a charge controller. The charge controller will take the power and determine where to send it. It can direct the power directly to the load.

It can also determine that power is not currently needed and can send the power to a battery bank to store that energy to be used at a later time.

If a charge controller is used in this fashion, which is commonly seen for industrial applications, the power will remain DC. If AC power is needed, an inverter will be required.

This basic solar setup can be used in our homes, places or work, or for industrial applications. The principles are the same.
- We collect sunlight via the solar panel
- We convert that sunlight into energy
- We either store the energy with the help of a charge controller, pass the energy directly to the load needing power, or store the energy with a battery bank.

Again, keep in mind that if AC power is needed and inverter will need to used.

Transcript:

[0m:4s] Hi I'm Josh Bloom, welcome to another video in the RSP Supply education series. Today we want to talk to you about how solar power works and also the benefits of using solar power, both in industrial applications as well as commercial and residential applications.
[0m:18s] Solar power will typically be used in industrial applications where we don't have access to local power. To give you an example, we might have a well that is used to provide water to residents in a local town. That well may be located in the mountains where we don't have any power. In that case, we would use solar power to provide energy for the instruments to control and operate the well to provide water to those residents. Solar power is also becoming very popular in residential and commercial applications. One of the main reasons for this is the cost of solar components have greatly reduced over the past decade or so.

[0m:53s] This gives us the ability to save a lot of money and control and generate our own power. So how does this work before? Before we actually get into how the system works, we want to talk about some of the components that are used in a basic solar setup.
[1m:4s] Now, keep in mind many of the components that you might see in larger more complex systems we're not going to talk about today. We're going to be covering a basic solar setup. The first and most important component in any solar setup is the solar panel itself. The solar panel is going to absorb sunlight and convert that sunlight into energy. The next type of component commonly used in any solar setup is a charge controller which we see here. Charge controller is going to direct the energy that's absorbed by the solar panel to specific locations. The next component we commonly see in solar systems is a battery. A battery is going to store energy that is absorbed by the solar panel when it is not being used by the electrical load we intend it for. Another common component use in solar systems is an inverter. An inverter simply takes DC power and converts it to AC power for use in our homes or commercial businesses.

[1m:53s] So, now that we know a little bit more about the basic parts used in a solar setup let's talk about how it actually works. Again, the solar panel is going to absorb sunlight and convert that sunlight into energy, in this case, DC power.
[2m:6s] That energy is going to be transferred over to our charge controller, which dictates where that energy actually goes. The charge controller is going to be wired to both the battery and it's also going to be wired to whatever electrical load we decide. What's interesting about the charge controller is it will actually monitor the energy that's coming off of the solar panel and it can determine where that power is needed. For instance,
[2m:27s] if we need power to our electrical load, it will send power in that direction. If there's no power that's needed on that electrical load, it will send power to our battery to store that energy for later use. In the case that there's no need for power at our electrical load and also that the battery might be full, the charge controller knows to dissipate that energy and that comes out in the form of heat. In other applications, we may use an inverter in our solar setup. The inverter works by drawing energy, DC power, from our solar panel. It converts that energy into AC power which we then can use in our homes and places of business. Here's an example of how we might set up and use a common solar system. First, we mount our solar panel facing south or Southwest at roughly a 45 degree angle. We then wire that panel to either our charge controller or inverter. In this case let's see if we're going to wire it to our charge controller.
[3m:20s] That charge controller then gets wired to our battery and also to our electrical load. Let's say the electrical load in this case is an industrial control panel.

[3m:28s] So, in this example, let's assume that our control panel is running 24 hours a day.
[3m:33s] The solar panel will absorb energy from the sun, which is wired to our charge controller. That charge controller will send the power that is required
[3m:41s] to the control panel. The excess power is then sent to our battery to charge. At night time when we are no longer receiving solar power, the charge controller will draw power from the battery and send that to our control panel.

[3m:54s] For a full line of solar components like these or thousands of other products, please go to our website.
[3m:59s] For more information or other educational videos, go to RSPSupply.com, the Internet's top source for industrial hardware. Also, don't forget, please like and subscribe.