How does solar power genertors work?
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Well, I applaud your ingenuity but that is already being done albeit not in massive amounts.  It is also more expensive to build a house that is solar powered but people are doing it here and there and in the long run, it does save money.  All the info you need is on the net but I doubt you can build from scratch.  You'd have to purchase kits from companies that produce solar panels and generators.
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I agree that a relay is useless.  Everything needs to be very low power (i.e. use MOSFETs).  Capacitors might work if you use the new "ultracapacitors", or DLC's, which have huge capacitance and tiny leakage.\n   Since it's solar powered, you'll have a photocell.  You can use this also as the light detector.  When the photocell is producing current, charge your battery or ultracapacitor.  When photocell voltage drops below some threshold, turn on the LED.\n   A simple way to go would be to use two or three photocells in series, and run through a diode to your battery/ultracapacitor.  THen, run the battery/capacitor positive terminal to the source of a p-channel MOSFET, and run the drain to your LED (with a series resistor to control brightness).  Control the gate of the MOSFET with the positive terminal of the photocells.\n   When the photocell voltage drops a few volts below the battery, the MOSFET will turn on, energizing the LED.  When the photocell is .7V more than the battery voltage, the battery will charge.
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If you're talking about electricity generated from solar panels, it's not widely done because of how expensive it is to build and construct panels. The material (Germanium or Silicon) alone costs a lot to synthesize.\n\nWind power turns out to be a better alternative, if you consider the costs and benefits. Ocean-tide power may be good source of power too.\n\nNow look up "Dyson Sphere." This is another aspect of tapping solar power; Solar power tapped to the extreme, not for electricity, but for life; A solution for the evergrowing population of mankind. A Dyson Sphere is impossible to construct, but a few hundred years from now it may be possible to create a Dyson Belt, a collection of inhabitable planetoids built and placed in orbit 93 million miles from the sun (the same distance as the Earth).
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It is used to generate electricity.
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You can store it in batteries and it lasts as long as the batteries last.\n\nThe sun produces a huge amount of energy every day (173 millions of billions Watts). The amount we receive generates wind (converted into electricity through windmills), heat, photosynthesis of plants and trees and 1.37kw of energy per square metre. This energy can be harnessed by PV cells and converted into electricity. In fact, less than 1% of our planet’s desert areas would generate all the electricity we need if it was covered with PV panels.\nGenerating electricity this way is quite simple: light hits a cell made of a thin layer of silicium over a metal support which generates electrons. The motion of these electrons generates current. PV cells are assembled in panels, generating up to 100w/h of DC power (14v approximately). These panels are connected to a regulator, which controls the electricity production, sends some to appliances, some to battery storage and dumps any excess. PV panels generate electricity when subjected to sunlight. This means they do not produce at night. This is why most systems store electricity in batteries.\n \nHOUSING APPLICATIONS\nA modern house does not require a lot of electricity and it does not seem very efficient to burn diminishing fossil resources in huge plants located far away and then transport this electricity over hundreds of kilometers to houses. By having a few PV panels on the roof, any ordinary house can generate its electrical needs; this power can be supplied in DC (for halogen lighting for example) and AC (220V) through an inverter to power standard appliances.\n \nA house connected to the grid can then sell electricity by day and buy some back at night.\nAn independent house generates all its needs by storing electricity in battery banks. In windy areas, a windmill can be a very good complement to PV systems.\n \nPV systems do not require fuel, have no moving parts that can wear, require virtually no maintenance and last for a very long time (some PV systems have a 30 years warranty).\n \nINDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS\nThey constitute the bulk of the applications today, for remote lighting, transmitters, satellites in space, etc. Industrial buildings could also produce part of their needs through PV.\n \nCOST MATTERS\nIs PV technology expensive? Prices are now going down and make it ever more competitive. PV systems last a very long time and over say 50 years, they should become extremely competitive.\nThe cost of fossil fuels is expected to increase over the next 20 years. Furthermore, fossil fuel generators require heavy maintenance. Another aspect to take in account is the pollution they generate: this has a heavy cost in terms of global warming, poor air quality, health problems and logistic costs (transport of fossil fuels, electricity on high power lines and their waste), not to mention collateral damage such as oil slicks, Chernobyl type accidents, respiratory diseases, chemical runoffs and other nasty results.
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There are many ways to take advantage of the energy produced by the sun.  A good place to start is with a passive solar energy water heater.  They are inexpensive to install and easy to maintain.  The simplest ones use the radiant energy of the sun and convert that to thermal energy using a material that absorbs the light instead of reflecting it, in layman's terms, something black.  \n\nPhotovoltaic (solar cell) systems convert sunlight directly into electricity. A solar or Photovoltaic cell consists of semiconducting material that absorbs the sunlight. The solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms in a semiconductor, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity.\n\nFor a more in-depth explanation of photovoltaic technology try this site.
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If you are into electrochemistry you could make your own solar cell or a flat panel solar cell. A solar cell is a device for converting energy from the sun into electricity. This project is fairly easy and there are plenty of pics to show you exactly how its done. \n\nAlso read the first source listed first because it tells you things you need to know for the second experiment.
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Solar photovoltaic panels contain arrays of solar cells that convert light into electricity. Solar cells, or PV cells, rely on the photovoltaic effect, which describes how certain materials can convert sunlight into electricity to absorb the energy of the sun and cause current to flow between two oppositely charged layers. Individual solar cells provide a relatively small amount of power, but electrical output is significant when connected together as an array making up a panel.\n\nOn a bright day, the sun delivers about 1 kW/m² to the Earth's surface. Typical solar panels have an average efficiency of 12%, with the best commercially available panels at 20%, and recent prototype panels at around 30%. This would result in 200 W/m². However, not all days have bright sunlight, and therefore not enough solar energy can be captured.\n\nA solar water heater uses the sun's energy to heat a fluid, which is used to transfer the heat to a heat storage vessel. In the home, for example, sanitary hot water would be heated and stored in a hot water cylinder. Panels on the roof have an absorber plate to which fluid circulation tubes are attached. The absorber, usually coated with a dark selective coating, assures the conversion of the sun's radiation into heat, while fluid circulating through the tubes carries the heat away where it can be used or stored. The heated fluid is pumped to a heat exchanger, which is a coil in the storage vessel or an external heat exchanger where it gives off its heat and is then circulated back to the panel to be reheated. This provides an effective way of harnessing the sun's energy.
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Generator generates electricity. It has a wire armeture mounted in an electic field. When the wire armeture is rotated, electric current is induced in the armeture du to change in magnetic flux.
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a generator is technology based on the scientific phenomenon that is today known as faraday's law.    \n\nif you have a loop of wire and you stick it into a magnetic field, well, then you'll have a loop in a magnetic field.  no big deal.  but if you then do something that changes the magnetic field somehow - either by changing the strength of the field, or its orientation relative to the loop - then if you are paying attention to such things you will notice that there is suddenly a current flowing in the wire.  and when you stop moving the field around, the current stops flowing.  faraday's law is a mathematical statement of this observed natural phenomenon, which is called induction.\n\nanyway, a generator is a thing that uses induction to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy.  it is basically what i just said - some big permanent magnets arranged such that there is a region of space with a strong magnetic field between them - and some big coil of wire in the middle.  \n\nthis coil is attached to a rod which leads out of the device and to a handle, or gears, or engine or turbine, or basically some -thing- that makes it spin.  the mechanical energy of the spinning is then converted into electrical energy, which drives the current in the loop, and powers whatever electrical device the two ends of the loop are attached to!\n\nand, basically that's it.  because the coil goes around and around, the current flows back and forth in a sine-wave pattern, and that's why generators are used for making alternating current, which is what is in the power grid and the walls of your house.\n\nnote that an electric motor is essentially a generator that operates in reverse - you connect some driving AC voltage to the coils, and the changing current causes a magnetic field to form which opposes that of the permanent magnets, so (as anyone who has ever played with magnets will tell you) there is a considerably strong force that pushes the coil away from the magnet.  with proper design you can make it keep pushing itself all the way around a circle, and voila, you have a motor.
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Solar energy (from solar panels)  converts sunlight into electricity. Solar arrays (massive groups of solar panels) can be used to produce energy on an industrial scale, but the average solar panel is still expensive and produces very little power.  However these solar arrays can be attached to the power grid like a normal power plant.  \n   Coal  fired power plants are currently the primary fuel used to produce electricity in the US.  There are also a  very few oil/gas plants used to produce power.      Solar panels can be placed on very light weight vehicles (like bikes) as a primary power source.  However since the power produced from a solar panel is pretty small,  you will never see a viable commercial solar powered SUV in the next 15 years.
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Typically a solar panel would be used to charge a 12 volt battery in circumstances where 110volt is not available.  12 volt power can be used for a lot of different things.
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By capturing the light and storing it.\nFor example capturing the sunlight inside the glass chambers filled with special metal foils that will get heated and then can be used later in solar energy.\nSo, that we can use that energy to heat, light, cook, and many other things.
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Not unless you can figure out a way to produce a semi-conductor at home.  Basically a solar cell (photovoltaic cell) is a couple of layers of silicon  P type and N type.  Electrons become excited when light quanta penetrates into the P layer. The excited electrons move to the N type and (very oversimplified) create electricity.\n\nI doubt you would have the facilities to create the materials at home.
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A solar cell (or a "photovoltaic" cell) is a semiconductor device that converts photons from the sun (solar light) into electricity. In general a solar cell that includes both solar and non-solar sources of light (such as photons from incandescent bulbs) is termed a photovoltaic cell. Fundamentally, the device needs to fulfill only two functions: photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons and holes) in a light-absorbing material, and separation of the charge carriers to a conductive contact that will transmit the electricity. This conversion is called the photovoltaic effect, and the field of research related to solar cells is known as photovoltaics.\n\nSolar cells have many applications. Historically solar cells have been used in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable, such as in remote area power systems, Earth orbiting satellites, consumer systems, e.g. handheld calculators or wrist watches, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. Recently solar cells are particularly used in assemblies of solar modules (photovoltaic arrays) connected to the electricity grid through an inverter, often in combination with a net metering arrangement.\n\nSolar cells are regarded as one of the key technologies towards a sustainable energy supply.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThree generations of development\n\n[edit] First\nThe first generation photovoltaic, consists of a large-area, single layer p-n junction diode, which is capable of generating usable electrical energy from light sources with the wavelengths of solar light. These cells are typically made using silicon wafer. First generation photovoltaic cells (also known as silicon wafer-based solar cells) are the dominant technology in the commercial production of solar cells, accounting for more than 86% of the solar cell market.\n\n\n[edit] Second\nThe second generation of photovoltaic materials is based on the use of thin-film deposits of semiconductors. These devices were initially designed to be high-efficiency, multiple junction photovoltaic cells. Later, the advantage of using a thin-film of material was noted, reducing the mass of material required for cell design. This contributed to a prediction of greatly reduced costs for thin film solar cells. However, most of the assembly costs for depositing thin film solar cells are still significantly higher than for bulk silicon technologies. Another advantage of the reduced mass is that less support is needed when placing panels on rooftops and it allows fitting panels on light materials, even textiles.\n\n\n[edit] Third\nThird generation photovoltaics are very different from the other two, broadly defined as semiconductor devices which do not rely on a traditional p-n junction to separate photogenerated charge carriers. These new devices include photoelectrochemical cells, Polymer solar cells, and nanocrystal solar cells.\n\n\n[edit] History\nMain article: Timeline of solar cells\nThe term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek φώς:phos meaning "light", and the name of the Italian physicist Volta, after whom the volt (and consequently voltage) are named. It means literally of light and electricity.\n\nThe photovoltaic effect was first recognised in 1839 by French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel. However it was not until 1883 that the first solar cell was built, by Charles Fritts, who coated the semiconductor selenium with an extremely thin layer of gold to form the junctions. The device was only around 1% efficient. Russell Ohl patented the modern solar cell in 1946 (US2402662, "Light sensitive device"). Sven Ason Berglund had a prior patent concerning methods of increasing the capacity of photosensitive cells. The modern age of solar power technology arrived in 1954 when Bell Laboratories, experimenting with semiconductors, accidentally found that silicon doped with certain impurities was very sensitive to light.\n\nThis resulted in the production of the first practi
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You can first buy the solar panels and then you get the plans from the Internet and you build such items as solar powered cars, water distillation station, etc..  The sky is the limit with solar power!!
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Currently, solar cells are only moderately efficient. Solar panels must be installed in large, unshaded areas.\n\nOther solar facilities that convert water to steam to generate power require acres of land for mirrors to focus the sun on the generation point.\n\nAll solar facilites will alter the environment around by raising the temperature in the air above them.  In the case of solar panels, they can be installed on roofs but steam facilities will block most of the sunlight from reaching the ground, altering the natural environment under the mirror field.