Bright Power provides assessment, engineering, design, and project management services for clients wishing to install solar electric systems. We offer expertise in each of the two main types of solar electric technology:

• Photovoltaic (PV)
• Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Photovoltaic (PV) Technology
Photovoltaic (PV) technology uses solar cells, made out of semiconductor materials such as silicon, to generate electricity directly from sunlight. Solar cells are connected together and encased in solar modules, commonly called solar panels, which are typically connected together to form solar arrays. An array can be mounted on a roof or on the ground or incorporated into the roof or walls of a building.

Rooftop Solar PV Panels (Source: NREL)

Solar cells produce direct current (DC) electricity from the sun’s rays. DC can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery, or it can be fed into an inverter which turns it into alternating current (AC) for use with typical electrical appliances.

Solar electric systems that include batteries are used to provide power when there is no electric utility connection, or when the electric utility grid goes down. However, solar PV systems can contain inverters and no batteries, for tying in directly with the electric utility grid. These "grid-tied" systems are cheaper and require less maintenance than battery-based systems.

Download pamphlet:
Facts About Solar Electricity (PDF, 129 kB)

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technology
Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are typically large-scale generating stations that use mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy for making high-grade heat.

California Parabolic Trough Plant (Source: NREL)

The main CSP technologies include:

• Parabolic Trough, which consists of a field of U-shaped mirrors, each one focusing sunlight onto a tube containing oil. The oil is heated by the sun and then used to run a conventional steam-powered electric turbine.
• Power Tower, which consists of a field of mirrors that track the sun and focus sunlight onto one central point at the top of a tower. The concentrated sunlight melts salt in the tower - the hot molten salt is used to run a conventional steam-powered electric turbine.
• Dish/Engine, which uses a mirrored dish, like a satellite dish, to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver. The receiver is connected to an engine, typically a stirling engine, in which the heat from the receiver causes the fluid in the engine to expand against a piston that runs an electric generator.