It is important for us to learn solar energy facts to make sure that we can appreciate the entire applications and the entire potential. Solar energy is the most desirable and ecologically friendly of all energy resources. Energy experts said that our atmosphere, land and oceans receive about 3 million exajoules of energy from the sun every year.
Solar Energy Facts – Basic Information
The list below brings some basic information related to solar energy.
• Solar devices can be utilized as two different types, which are active and passive. Passive devices are thermal based while the active ones use photovoltaic.
• Photovoltaic systems with solar energy are the most common energy transformation devices these days, which commonly used for supplying energy to houses.
• Because of its high specific heat energy, thermal based power systems often use molten salts. It is for holding the solar energy when in extremely high temperature.
• IEA or International Energy Agency has predicted that by the year of 2060, about 33% of the whole power would be supplied by solar power technologies.
• The first commercial solar-powered cell phone was created by Nokia in mid 1990s.
Solar Energy Facts and Development
Here are the list of solar energy facts and development:
• Italian inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first people in the world who realized the potential of industrial usage of sun ray to heat up water.
• In 1839, Edmond Becquerel seen the photovoltaic effect during his experiment with electrolytic cells.
• Clarence Kemp gained a patent for his design of the 1st solar-powered water heater.
• Frank Shuman built the 1st solar thermal power station in Egypt in 1913. It utilized parabolic mirrors to heat up water in metal boilers to drive up to 65 horsepower engine. It had ability to pump up more than 6,000 gallons every minute from the Nile River.
• In 1954, Bell Laboratories built the 1st modern photovoltaic solar cell.
Solar energy can be used for many purposes. There was large scale of research, advancement and improvement since the 1980s, helped the invention of photovoltaic cell. It means, the whole industry would be revolutionized in the future. Different from any other energy, solar energy is measured with kilowatts-hour with Joule as the basic unit. However, kilowatt-hour is more common because Joule is too small. 1 kilowatt-hour is equal with the use of 10 hours of 100 watt device.
The solar panel we usually find at home uses the same equipment with other conventional power source. It means, we will also find generators, transformers and other electrical devices. Most people asked about the price of a solar panel and how to install it on the rooftops. If we try to compare a solar panel with conventional power source, then we have to say that the price is still quite expensive.
However, it should not spend a long time to recover the budget we have spent for it, especially if we can free from conventional power source. Learning about solar energy facts will help us understand why this alternative energy resource could help human in the future.
