When using photo-voltaic cells to capture solar power, it might be best to use deep cycle batteries for storage. The sun don’t shine at night, so stored energy is a key to the successful implementation of solar power capture.
Energy calculations – solar power
Deep cycle batteries are designed less for automobiles and more for complete discharge and recharge. Automobile batteries are lead acid batteries and capable of many years of service when stationary. In a car, they are subjected to rain, snow, bouncing and swaying, and this is less than ideal. Also, a car battery is designed to provide a high current for a short time to start the engine, and not for the continuous discharge that might occur when batteries that store solar power are required to supply power for an extended length of time.
A lead acid battery will have the longest life when complete discharge is avoided. Chemically, the acid and water mixture is less stable at discharge, and most stable when close to fully charged. Overcharge also de-stabilizes the lead acid mixture. Another ill effect of overcharge and discharge is damage to the plates.
Plates in a deep discharge battery are larger and heavier, with greater separation and more resistance to corrosion. A deep discharge battery kept between 50% and 99% charge level can last for decades. Deep cycle batteries will also use a more viscous acid solution that is less prone to separation when a deep discharge occurs.
Well, it is true that PV cells are by far the most efficient, ptoabrle, and easiest way to capture solar energy, there is at least one more. Before the 20th century began, Nikola Tesla invented a machine that would use sunlight to heat water into steam. It was basically an array of finely tuned mirrors aimed at a tube filled with water. This method is still used today for solar power stations, except oil is used instead of water, and steam is created through the use of an oil to water heat exchanger (intercooler). This is the best way for large-scale stationary facilities, but since the mirrors have to follow the sun exactly, it requites constant attention. Just something you may want to think about incase the hight price of solar panels turns you away, and you do not want to steal them from weather stations.