Solar power systems are a popular option around the world for good reason. These systems, however, can range rather greatly in size and complexity.

The different types of solar power systems available include:

• Small cell systems – The popularity of solar power systems to power a single device are becoming very popular.

Examples of this type of system abound and include such things as wrist watches, portable radios and flashlights and even camping equipment. This type of solar power system is generally very small and self-contained.

• Limited use solar panel arrays for home use – Home use solar power systems are generally designed for limited use. This means they are meant to power specific systems within a home.

For example, a solar power array might be designed to take an air conditioning system or pool water heater off of the electrical grid. This type of system generally involves solar panels on one portion of a roof.

• Self-contained home systems – This type of system is most commonly used in remote locations.

A fully self-contained solar power system that can run an entire household or office can provide all necessary power when getting on the electrical grid isn’t feasible. This type of system will generally involve a much larger solar panel array than a limited design.

Self-contained systems are becoming more popular in residential areas where electrical access is also available.

• Solar dish – Solar power systems that are created using dishes that are similar to satellite dishes are becoming quite popular for portable use and even in collection fields used by power companies to offset their own use of fossil fuel driven electricity.

This type of system involves collection of the sun’s rays using a device that can be moved to absorb the maximum amount of energy during daylight hours.

On the portable end, this type of system is frequently used by campers and RV enthusiasts. Larger systems are rather cost prohibitive for individual owners to put in place. Inasmuch, they are used by power companies instead.

• Solar fields – Solar fields are exactly what they sound like. This type of set up, reserved for power company use, involves the creation of a large number of solar arrays to collect the sun’s energy during daylight.

A solar field might include stationary panels, solar dishes or a combination thereof.

Solar power systems are showing their benefits more and more. As the limited nature of fossil fuels becomes very evident, harnessing this type of renewable energy is becoming very attractive on the small scale and even in large scale projects.

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Measured at peak capacity, the photovoltaic (PV) array will deliver 37,000 kilowatt hours annually from a 22.5 kWp system. The kWp designates kilowatts at peak (p) performance, or output.

Working with the TMMC staff, SPG Solar – which designs and installs custom PV systems – created a uniquely suitable marine mammal shelter by analyzing the pitch of individual PV panels in relation to the slopes where they were installed to provide optimum shade. SPG also used materials designed for stability and maximum performance in the damp, salty environment where the mammals take shelter, and insured the animal’s safety by concealing the wiring inside the PV panel’s columnar supports.

As a final touch, SPG installed an interactive kiosk which allows the approximately 100,000 annual visitors from around the world to see how the system is performing in real time.

TMMC, which rescues and rehabilitates up to 1,200 marine mammals each year with a full-time staff of 30, went solar in order to set an example for other organizations, according to Tony Promessi, TMMC’s director of Life Support and Facilities. Because TMMC is an educational facility, as well as a marine hospital, it seemed the ideal way to promote clean, renewable solar energy, Promessi noted.

According to figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, TMMC’s solar installation will cut emissions of carbon dioxide – which would have been produced by a fossil-fuel burning power plant – by 664 metric tons over the next 25 years, which is the lifetime of the system. This is equivalent to taking 122 cars off the road or planting 4,000 trees.

Carbon dioxide, implicated not only in global warming but in the rising acidity of oceans, is destroying phytoplankton. Phytoplankton, the ocean’s equivalent of trees, shrubs and grasslands, drive the entire ocean food chain. Without them, ocean fish will disappear, leaving marine mammals without their staple food, so the TMMC solar installation is also another facet of marine mammal rescue, insuring that the oceans remain viable food sources not only for seal and dolphins but for humans.

SPG, which recently completed the largest PV theater installation in the U.S. on the roof of Livermore Cinemas in California, also partnered in February with SunRun, which leases solar systems to homeowners at rates that are usually less than the utility charges.