Helping To Meet Your Site’s Sustainability Targets Through Solar Energy

Solar power is one of the best forms of renewable energy available to us today. It’s clean, sustainable, and emission-free. But how does solar power actually work, and, even more importantly, how can you use it to reduce emissions on your site?

In this blog post, we’ll look at how we have harness the power of solar energy with our welfare units to help you to meet your sustainability targets and reduce running costs.

What is solar power and how does it work?

The sun is essentially an enormous nuclear reactor, which smashes atoms together to release the energy inside. This energy travels through space and reaches us in the form of light and heat.

There are two different ways of capturing solar radiation and converting it into energy that we can use – namely, active and passive solar technologies.

Active solar technologies use mechanical or electrical devices to actively convert solar energy into heat or electricity. Generally speaking, however, people are much more familiar with passive solar technologies, such as photovoltaics.

How do photovoltaics harness solar power?

Photovoltaics were discovered in 1839 by 19-year-old French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel. He found that if he added silver-chloride to an acidic solution and then exposed it to sunlight, the attached platinum electrodes generated an electric current. This process of generating electricity from solar radiation is called the photovoltaic effect.

Today, photovoltaic solar panels are the most well-known way to harness solar energy, with large photovoltaic power stations and solar farms being created all over the world to meet global demand for renewable energy. These solar farms emit thousands of megawatts of electricity to supply homes, businesses, hospitals and schools.

On a smaller scale, photovoltaic panels and cells can be fixed to individual buildings to supply electricity.

Don’t photovoltaic panels need sunshine to work?

It’s a common misconception that photovoltaic panels aren’t suitable for use in the UK, because of its limited days of pure sunshine.
Although solar panels work best in direct sunlight, they can also work without it. Photovoltaic panels produce electricity using both direct and indirect sunlight as inputs. Both forms of sunlight carry photons, which the solar panels convert into electric current.

Even on cloudier days, solar panels can still produce electricity through indirect sunlight alone, although there may be a minor drop in performance.

How can your site use solar energy to reduce emissions?

You can hire our hybrid solar-powered welfare units to deliver high quality, essential staff facilities on site, whilst also helping to achieve your sustainability targets.

Our latest Oasis EcoLogic Solar units are powered by our EcoLogic Solar hybrid technology. Each self-contained welfare unit will provide your site with office and/or canteen facilities, a 24/7 drying room and 2 toilets.

EcoLogic Solar welfare units are highly energy efficient and mainly silent. The technology can generate a renewable electrical power supply all-year-round, reducing carbon emissions as well as running costs.