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Why Solar DC

Before going to the solar DC power, we must consider and emphasize on clean energies sources.

These days the world policies lead the power generation from conventional generation to the renewable sources as conventional sources are being a threat to the environment. So we are more emphasized on clean energies sources. Among that solar energy is most abundant and cheapest source of energy. It is easy to harness the energy from the solar and to utilize as well.

But before going to the solar power, we must consider our conventional system which runs on AC. While solar panel produces solar DC and it cannot directly be utilized so we required it to convert it from DC to AC, only then it is useful to the conventional system. After the War of currents, AC won and placed at top priority as it was easy to transmit the power over large distances. The AC is useful as well as dangerous to life as it is having very high voltage levels. Later it is step-down and then utilized for available AC equipment.

Solar DC
Fig.1: Block diagram of solar power with multiple power conversions.

 

But with the time different technologies has emerged and with the growth electronics gadgets these days, it seems that war of currents may occur again. Most of the electronic components like LED bulbs, TV, Mobile, laptops and another electronic appliances/gadgets run on DC. So even after getting power from AC, a conversion from AC to DC is must. Though it is easy to convert AC to DC but expensive as well as less efficient (conversion technology increases the cost to the system). So a considerable loss can observed during these conversions. Also due to fluctuation of AC may threat to these electronics gadgets as sudden surges may damage the components or affect the working of these components.

So with these factors, we are required to consider DC to set our priority. The major advantage of DC is that we are not required to have a higher level of the voltage to run these components. They generally run on the small level of voltage e.g a LED (DC) requires only 5 V DC. Also, DC is free from fluctuations and surges, which provides a continuous and uninterrupted power.

With these advantages of DC over AC, we may answer why Solar DC? Being the most abundant source of the energy, solar has one disadvantage to the conventional AC system. Solar energy produces DC, so to utilise this power, a conversion from DC to AC is required. This can be done using power electronic conversion (using inverters). Then this converted power is distributed to different houses mostly of which are using DC appliances these days. So we again convert AC into DC using rectifiers. These multiple conversions cause a huge loss in power and as well as affects the quality and stability of the power. Instead of doing these conversions, it is better to exploit the solar energy directly.

solar dc power
Fig.2: Solar DC Power with single conversion and min losses

Hence, solar DC is the solution to avoid these losses and to enhance the quality and supply of the power to meet the demand. It is increasing the system reliability as well as reducing the system complexity. It is also cost-effective as no circuitry is required for power conversion. So to have an efficient, reliable and cost-effective system, we may consider  Solar DC.