Let the Sun Shine!

“Mom, why aren’t the lights turning on?”

Staying in Bagneres-de-Bigorre for 2 weeks was really interesting as we were living “off the grid“. This means the house is not connected to the power lines which deliver electricity. The house, all it’s appliances and electric fencing for the animals is run on solar power. Solar power is a way to make energy without burning fossil fuels. On the farm, we learned a lot about solar energy and how it works.

First, the sun shines down on the earth and the rays get absorbed into dark panels called PV or photovoltaic panels.

Second, while in the panels, the rays are turned into a type of electricity called Direct Current (DC).  The current travels in one direction and the electrons must travel the full distance of the circuit in order to work.

Next, the current flows through a charge controller which tells how much electricity is generated by the solar panels, and how much energy is stored in the batteries.

Then the current passes to batteries that stores the electricity for later use.  (We were unable to get a photo of the batteries as they were inaccessible.)

Finally, the current flows through an inverter and converts the Direct Current into another form called Alternating Current (AC). With Alternating Current, the flow of electrons is not in one direction as it is with DC, rather it is constantly being reversed thousands of times per second.  This form of electricity is more efficient, as it allows the electrons to stay in the general area of the device being powered.  When the electrons have used up their energy, they gain more energy through collisions with their neighbours which occur as part of the process of constantly changing direction of the power flow.  This is the current used to power our house and electric appliances.

There are a lot of pros to solar power.  It uses a natural source (the sun) which is renewable and doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses. If the solar power system is connected to the grid, extra electricity produced can be sold back to an electricity company.  From this, one can receive credits to deduct money from a normal electricity bill. While we stayed at the farm the sun was shining most of the time so we generated lots of power.

However there are some cons to this type of energy.  If the day is cloudy, not as much power is collected and some appliances may not be able to function like the vacuum, washing machine, and fridge. During our experience, the power was not strong enough to support more than one major appliance being used at the same time.  For this reason, the fridge was on a timer for four hours and we were only able to do laundry at 11:30 am.  Furthermore, the initial investment to generate solar power is expensive and doesn’t pay itself off for awhile.

Other ways to produce electricity are: coal, nuclear, wind, and hydroelectric energy.  They are similar to solar because they all produce electricity, but some of the differences are as follows: coal is a nonrenewable source and emits greenhouse gasses, nuclear has large plants and some degree of risk, wind relies on a different source and is government owned, and hydro needs a lot of space and free flowing water.

What could Kim and Steve do if power is needed and there is no sun or stored power? This could be a big problem for them in the winter when it’s cold and gets dark quickly outside. Their solution is to use a generator! The generator is powered with gasoline so it can be used at any time and in any season.

The generator

Connecting the house directly to the generator

Living “off the grid” and using solar power was an interesting way to live for two weeks on the farm and Kim and Steve showed us how it can be done.  It was neat we were able to produce natural and clean energy using the power of the sun.

I’m interested to see how solar power will develop in the future.  I would really love to drive a solar powered car.  Take a look at what Spain is doing….

Solar Thermal Power Station