Yesterday’s post talked about how wind turbines can provide clean and renewable energy for steel buildings. Today, let’s talk about the use of solar panels in partially powering a home or workplace.

For steel buildings, solar panels are fitted onto the whole roof or portions of the roof, depending on the amount of generated energy needed.

Solar panels are perceived to be more effective than wind turbines because of the wind’s unreliability factor, yet both technologies offer a great way of providing renewable electricity in a wide variety of applications and locations.

Today, there are two main forms of solar panels or solar cells in existence – solar electricity panels and solar hot water or thermal panels. As their names imply, the first one provides electricity while the other one provides a hot water supply.

Solar thermal panels are used for household water heating or for heating swimming pools. A good solar hot water panel system installed in your steel building is capable of providing around a third of your annual hot water supply.

The solar cells or panels use photovoltaic power to convert solar energy into direct current electricity and are much more efficient than their solar thermal cousins. That electricity is stored in a battery bank where power needs are drawn out. The solar panels recharge the batteries the moment their charge drops below a certain level.

Photovoltaic cells are linked together to form an array, making them provide a greater output of electricity. This method makes the use of solar panels as a viable option in contributing to the power needs of small homes and businesses.

The initial investment for solar panels is high, but advances in production and technology have reduced their  costs, contributing to their widespread use.

The combination of solar panels with other renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines, can work quite well in providing a source of cheap, clean, and renewable energy for steel building applications such as homes, offices, or warehouses.