Solar Thermal Panels Vs Photovoltaic Panels

As the name may suggest to you solar thermals technology is used to create heat for your home.

Solar thermal panels vs photovoltaic panels.

You can extract as much as 70 of the sun s energy with a solar collector which is accomplished by circulating a fluid through a solar panel collector and capturing the heat rise that naturally occurs when the sun shines on the collector. It is important to understand that solar thermal technology is not the same as solar panel or photovoltaic technology. Photovoltaic pv solar panels differ from solar thermal systems in that they do not use the sun s heat to generate power. Also worth noting is that in terms of its components a photovoltaic solar panel is designed to withstand 100 c even if it does not necessarily reach this temperature.

Sunlight is collected as it would be via regular solar panels before being transformed into heat for water or your home in general. Solar thermal electric energy generation concentrates the light from the sun to create heat and that heat is used to run a heat engine which turns a generator to make electricity. It is important to understand that solar thermal technology is not the same as solar panel or photovoltaic technology. The heat in turn drives a heat engine which turns a generator to make electrical energy.

Conventional photovoltaic panels reach temperatures of 75 to 80 c whereas our spring solar panel is more efficient due to its maximum temperature of 70 c. It can also be stored and turned into electricity at a later time. Solar thermal electric energy generation concentrates the light from the sun to create heat and that heat is used to run a heat engine which turns a generator to make electricity. Differences between solar thermal and pv solar panels solar thermal uses the sun s energy to generate thermal energy which is used to heat water or other fluids photovoltaic pv systems generate electricity rather than heat.

Solar thermal technology and solar pv are two very different forms of solar technology. Photovoltaic vs solar thermal. The working fluid that is heated by the concentrated sunlight can be a liquid or a gas. The solar thermal system differs from solar photovoltaic in that the solar thermal power generation works through the concentration of sunlight to produce heat.

As the name suggests solar thermal technology is used to collect sunlight and transform it into heat that is stored and later on transformed into electricity. Instead they use sunlight through the photovoltaic effect to generate direct electric current dc in a direct electricity production process.