Related topics: solar panels
Solar energy
hideSolar energy is the radiant light and heat from the Sun that has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation along with secondary solar resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth. Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used.
Solar power provides electrical generation by means of heat engines or photovoltaics. Once converted, its uses are limited only by human ingenuity. A partial list of solar applications includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, potable water via distillation and disinfection, daylighting, hot water, thermal energy for cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes.
Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute sunlight. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors (with electrical or mechanical equipment) to convert sunlight into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.
For more information about Solar energy, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with solar energy
New Florida City To Run On Solar Power
Apr 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new Florida city, Babcock Ranch, will power 19,500 homes by solar power and cost the average customer's monthly bill an additional 31 cents. This will be the first city on earth powered ...
Liquid Battery Offers Promising Solar Energy Storage Technique
Mar 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the biggest challenges currently facing large-scale solar energy technology is finding an effective way to store the energy, which is essential for using the electricity at night or ...
Solar power generation around the clock
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing ...
Shifting the world to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030 -- here are the numbers
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Most of the technology needed to shift the world from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy already exists. Implementing that technology requires overcoming obstacles in planning and politics, but doing so ...
Will Europe Be Powered by the Sahara
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Europe has long been interested in developing alternative energy sources. And, one of the more interesting places that some Europeans are looking for solar power is the Sahara. With the vast ...
Easing Atmospheric CO2 Levels Using Nanotubes and Sunlight
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have determined a way to use arrays of nanotubes in a solar-based process to convert carbon dioxide and water into methane and other hydrocarbon ...
A bright future with solar lanterns for India's poor
Apr 27, 2009 |
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Solar energy has the potential to improve the living conditions of poor rural households in India as well as contribute to the country's future energy security, according to Professor Govindasamy Agoramoorthy from Tajen University, ...
Largest solar panel plant in US rises in Fla.
Oct 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Greg Bove steps into his pickup truck and drives down a sandy path to where the future of Florida's renewable energy plans begin: Acres of open land filled with solar panels that will soon power thousands ...
Ancient diatoms lead to new technology for solar energy
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 08, 2009 |
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Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to use an ancient life form to create one of the newest technologies for solar energy, in systems that may be surprisingly simple to build compared to existing silicon-based ...
Getting into hot water: Solar water heating pays for itself five times over
Mar 09, 2009 |
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An analysis of the engineering and economics for a solar water-heating system shows it to have a payback period of just two years, according to researchers in India. They report, in the International Journal of Global En ...
Transparent solar cells
Jun 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- If solar cells were transparent they could be fitted to windows and building facades. Physical modeling helps in the development of suitable materials for transparent electronics and thus ...
Researchers Identify Key Molecules in Photosynthesis
Dec 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemistry professor Harry Frank led an international group of researchers that identified the molecules in algae which direct the organisms to convert sunlight into oxygen. The findings may ...
Unprecedented growth seen for solar energy
Feb 06, 2009 |
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The head of the federal government's effort to promote solar technology told about 200 industry leaders yesterday that expanding the industry to the level needed by 2030 will require unprecedented levels of growth.
DNA 'tricked' to act as nano-building blocks
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Apr 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- McGill researchers have succeeded in finding a new way to manufacture nanotubes, one of the important building blocks of the nanotechnology of the future. Their building material? Biological DNA.
Commercialization of new solar technology to boost solar efficiency
Nov 09, 2009 |
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A pioneer in solar power in the 1990s before it became "sexy," University of Houston Professor Alex Freundlich recently entered into a collaborative research agreement with U.K.-based start-up QuantaSol for the development ...
