Solar Lantern
What is Solar lantern ?
A solar lamp also known as solar light or solar lantern, is a lighting system composed of a LED lamp, solar panels, lithium ion battery and a solar charge controller. The lamp operates on electricity from batteries, charged through the use of solar panel (solar photovoltaic panel).
Solar-powered household lighting can replace other light sources like candles or kerosene lamps. Solar lamps have a lower operating cost than kerosene lamps because renewable energy from the sun is free, unlike fuel. In addition, solar lamps produce no indoor air pollution unlike kerosene lamps. However, solar lamps generally have a higher initial cost, and are weather dependent but with increase in technology, today solar lamps are available at reasonable prices.
Solar lamps for use in rural situations often have the capability of providing a supply of electricity for other devices, such as for charging cell phones, listening to FM radio etc.
Key Components of solar lantern
Solar Panel
Most solar panels are made out of single crystalline silicon, a semiconductor material. A solar cell has two different layers of silicon. The lower layer has less electrons and hence has a slight positive charge due to the negative charge nature of electrons. In addition, the upper layer has more electrons and has slightly negative charge. A potential barrier is created between these two layers.
When the stream of light particles called photons enter, they give up their energy to the atoms in the silicon. It promotes one electron from a covalent bond to a next energy level from upper layer to the lower layer. This promotion of an electron allows freer movement within the crystal which produces a current. More light shines through, more electrons move around hence more current flows between. This process is called photovoltaic and photoelectric effect. Photovoltaic systems directly convert sunlight into electricity.
Solar panels are made out of layers of different materials, as you can see in Figure 2, in order of glass, encapsulate, crystalline cells, encapsulate, back sheet, junction box and lastly frame. The encapsulate keeps out moisture and contaminants which could cause problems.
Solar Charge Controller
Solar Charge controller controls the entire working systems to protect battery charge. It ensures, under any circumstances including extreme weather conditions with large temperature difference, the battery does not overcharge or over discharge and damage the battery even further.
Solar charge controller also includes additional parts such as light controller, time controller, sound, temperature compensation, lighting protection, reverse polarity protection and AC transfer switches which ensure sensitive back-up loads work normally when outage occurs.
Battery
A battery is usually housed within a metal or plastic case. Inside the case are electrodes including cathodes and anodes where chemical reactions occur. A separator also exists between cathode and anode which stops the electrodes reacting together at the same time as allowing electrical charge to flow freely between the two. Lastly, the collector conducts a charge from the battery to outside.
Batteries inside solar lamps usually use gel electrolyte technology with high performance in deep discharging, in order to enable use in extreme ranges of temperature. It may also use lead-acid, nickel metal hydride, nickel cadmium, or lithium.
This part of the lamp saves up energy from the solar panel and provides power when needed at night when there is no light energy available.