One of the elective courses I attended during the 6th semester of my bachelor in Product Development and Integretive Technology was solar panels their integration and solar energy. Through this course I improved my knowledge in areas such as: How do solar panels work? How can energy be stored? How much solar energy can be absorbed? What kind of solar panels are already on the market? How can solar panels be integrated? and many others. 

At the beginning of this course me and my groupmate were presented with a task to power up a fridge using a solar panel. To accomplish this task we had to calculate and decide on what kind of freezer we wanted to power, what size of solar panel we needed, how to tansform different voltages inside the system and what components we needed in order for the whole electrical chain to work? 

The final circuit was connected from components such as: 220V Freezer, 12V Solar Panel, 12V DC to 220V AC Inverter, 12V Car Battery, Current Sensor, Voltage Divider and an ESP 32 board for displaying voltages in different places inside the circuit. Our designed layout of all the components allowed the freezer to run even is there was not enough sunlight by using the power stored inside the battery. On the other hand, if sun was producing more power than needed for a freezer to run, the remaining energy would be used to charge the battery. 

During this course I learned that different electrical components must be made compatible; power production, storage and consumption need to match up; efficiency rates and losses must be included in calculations; Ohm's and Watt's laws. I also gained a lot of useful knowledge about solar panels and how can they be used, that I will now be able to use in my future projects.