Solar Energy Science Fair Projects for Kids

**This is the 5th installment in a series of science fair articles contributed by Super Science Fair Projects for The Homeschool Desk. To view last week's article, please click here.**

Solar energy is one of those free resource that everyone on the planet has access to, at least for part the day. With fossil fuel shortages and pollution problems associated with their use on the rise, it is time to turn to more environmentally friendly energy options. Kids can help find ways to make solar energy more accessible to people in their communities by completing solar energy science fair projects.

Project #1 - Power House Experiment

The first science fair project that can be completed using basic supplies for solar energy for homeschooling is the power house experiment. The concepts of this experiment will enable students to develop a project around the application of solar energy to running a household.

After learning about how solar energy is transformed into electricity, the student will need to devise their own prediction of what would happen if an element in the basic process was manipulated. For example, they can examine what would happen if the amount of sun exposure was increased or decreased. They will then need to modify the original solar power house experiment to test their hypothesis.

Project #2 - Running a TV on Sun Power

A fun science fair project to complete is to develop a solar energy system that will produced enough electricity to operate a television. For this project the student will need to build one or more solar panels to collect solar energy and they will also need to design and connect an electrical circuit and a power converter. To increase amps and voltage the student will need to figure out what components of their circuits need to be manipulated.

This project will involve both trial and error and scientific calculations. To complete this experiment students will need to learn how to use physics formulas for watts, volts and amps in order to manipulate their experiment's design to operate a television set. They will also need to learn how to manipulate electrical components like electrical resistance and insulators in order to produce good results.

Project #3 - Hybrid Power

If the student lives in an area that does not get a lot of sunlight during certain times of the year, such as those students living in Alaska, then a hybrid power science fair project is a good option. This type of project will focus on the supplementing of solar power capabilities with wind power capabilities. For this project the student will need supplies to create both a solar panel set up and a wind turbine set up.

The hypothesis for this project is going to be that wind turbines provide a reliable backup source of energy when solar energy is compromised. To test this hypothesis students will need to first devise a control experiment for solar energy only. They will then devise a wind power energy experiment and a hybrid energy experiment. The results from each test will be compared to the results from the control to see if wind energy is generally more reliable than solar energy and to see if hybrid systems provide 24 hour energy opportunities.

Conclusions

Solar energy science fair projects are hot right now. This is because everyone is interested in finding cheap and clean energy sources. However, since it is a popular topic you will need to make your project interesting and unique if you want it to stand out from the others at your local science fair.

**A big thank you to Super Science Fair Projects for writing this post for The Homeschool Desk. To learn more, please visit the Super Science Fair Projects website. And be sure to stay tuned for next week's Science Fair Project installment!**