Can solar energy be stored and if so how long?

Question

I wanted to know if solar energy can be stored for electricty purposes For example houses and charging other electronic devices.

Answer 1

yes it can either in batteries if you use batteries you will need to purchase a inverter. or if you have some extra too invest u could install a grid tie system and it would be stored on the local grid for future use.

Answer 2

solar energy must be converted first from sun rays to usable form of energy. it could be converted to hot water,and stored as such, it could be converted to electricity, Direct Current, and stored in batteries.

Answer 3

Electricity is stored in batteries , hot water in insulated tanks. Batteries can store charges from few days to a few weeks hot water 4-5 days depends on insulation.

Answer 4

I have worked on solar systems on houses that that are not on an electrical grid. The normal storage system is an array of batteries. A very small system that only uses a few lights at night will only need a few car type batteries. A normal house with refrigerator (not frost free because they have strip heater), 5-10 lights and normal TV use will need 8-12 large batteries that are about the size of a golf cat battery. Note: Can't support air conditioning or heat with this system.

The batteries are expensive and seem to have a  life of 3-5 years and their efficiency falls off with age.

Answer 5

Solar energy comes in several forms, for example using photovoltaic cells to convert the solar energy to electricity which can then be stored in batteries and used later.

Solar energy can also be used to heat liquids which can be used to generate electricity such as converting water to steam and then powering a generator.  In this case unless a battery is used the energy is only available while the sun is shining.

There are also technologies such as the Redox Battery that are essentially a fuel cell that offer enormous storage capacities for use with solar and wind generated power.

Answer 6

in batteries which is very bad for the environment.

Answer 7

batteries are only bad for the envirinment if they are not recycled, and actually batteries are close to 100% recycled, they are a very good storage medium.

others include flywheels.  a big heavy flywheel spinning at 80000 rpm will spin for years with almost no resistance, it's another good energy storage device that can store energy from almost any scource.

You can use solar energy to lift heavy weights high into the air, and as they fall use them to regenerate electricity, or spin a shaft.

You can use solar energy to seperate hydrogen from water by electralisis, and then use that as a fuel source in a fuel cell.

solar energy is not the only energy that can be stored in those ways, there is also wind, rivers, ocean waves and geothurmal (heat from the earth). all of which are clean and everpresent (the wind doesn't blow all the time, but it always blows at least 40% of the time).