Meeting a dwelling's energy need with solar energy: An application study from Turkey

Electricity generation and having energy resources are one of the most important issue for societies from past to these days. Fossil fuels that providing three quarters of world's basic energy needs cause global warming with greenhouse gases becomes progressively smaller as well. Energy consumption is constantly increasing in parallel with population growth in the world, urbanization, industrialization and expansion of technology. While fossil fuels are quickly running out, energy demand is increasing rapidly. It is assumed that Petroleum is getting run out 2050 years. Natural gas and coal will have reserve until 2050 and 2150. In addition, the uses of fossil fuels have many negative effects to our environment. Cities are covered with black exhalations and sometimes it is hard to breathe because of air pollution. The Ozone layer has pierced and has became unable to fulfill the task of filtering. We have started to feel the effects of global warming strongly with each passing day. In such an environment, electricity generation with solar energy is becoming really important which is an endless source of clean energy. However, Dwellings to fulfill their own electricity need contribute significantly to environmental pollution and energy production. In this study, meeting a dwelling's energy need with clean energy that is one of the future energy generation methods has been examined. A system which generates electricity from solar energy was designed for this purpose. In this study we want to show the applicability of solar energy system at houses and make a practice about cost and productivity analyses. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.