“How can we make a convenient way to store energy harvested from the sun?”
Solar power is a most fascinating and practical way to capture energy. Just by taking in natural energy from the sun, it can power homes, buildings, and even entire towns! However, all of this comes with one drawback; Solar energy can only operate when the sun is out. This means that if machines want to operate during the dark, there will need to be some way to store this energy. Well, instead of giving up, let’s use our engineering mindset to solve this problem. We know that one method to store energy is one that is found every day, batteries. Batteries can have a high energy and also discharge with ease. So what if we were to hook up a solar panel system to a battery to create a solar battery? This setup is the exact working principle behind a multitude of innovative projects such as Tesla Motor’s powerwall system and grid islanding infrastructure.