Solar energy is the energy we receive from the sun in the form of heat and light. It is available almost throughout the daytime across the year with slight variations in intensity. There are several advantages of using solar like:-

• It i’s clean and pollution free.
• Its reserves are not exhaustive, fuel crisis can occur but sun will be there alwaysunlike fuel.
• It is available free of cost.

Solar Radiation – a Nigerian perspective

“1% of Nigeria’s land mass could be utilized for generation of 6,000 MW electricity as compared to the 6,000 MW being generated by fuel” - Professor Abubakar Sambo, Director General of the ECN.

Nigeria receives ample radiation from the sun as it sirf falls near the equator belt, and therefore is thus blessed in terms of radiation received from sun and has a lot of hidden potential hidden in its endowments to bethat can be tapped.

Photovoltaic – This technology is a direct conversion technique used to produce electricity directly from the energy received from the sunlight falling on earth. Solar Panels made up of Photovoltaic cells or solar cells are used to achieve this. Thesey cells are usually made up of Silicon, or and depending on the type of Silicon used, the panels can be broadly classified into :-

• Crystalline (uses crystalline Silicon)
  • Monocrystalline (Highest efficiency, costly)
  • Poly crystalline (Lower efficiency, cheaper)
• Amorphous (uses non crystalline Silicon) – have very low output efficiency