Solar Energy

Solar energy is a light and heat from the closest star. Our star is  150 000 000  kilometres away, and amazingly powerful. The power of the closest star has been used by us since the beginning of our race but still only a slight fraction of the available solar energy is used. In fact , every minute , enough energy arrives at the Earth to meet our demands for months .

Collector and storage

The Earth receives 174 petawatts (PW) of incoming solar radiation  at the atmosphere . About 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by the earth (atmosphere, lands, oceans). The sun creates its energy through a thermonuclear process that converts about more then   650 000 00   tons of hydrogen to helium every second however only a very small fraction of the total radiation produced arrives the Earth.

Solar energy production requires two parts to work. These two components are a collector and a storage unit. The collector simply collects the radiation that falls on it and converts a fraction of it to other forms of energy. 
The storage unit is required because of the non-constant nature of solar energy. The sun is not available at night. Storage can be done using thermal mass or water tanks for liquid based systems.

Uses of solar power

• Solar water heating
• Heating, cooling and ventilation 
• Water treatment
• Cooking
• Process heat
• Electrical generation
• Solar chemical
• Solar vehicles

The future of the solar power is bright

In the begining of the 21st century, solar power became  a part of our daily life. We have solar heated pools , solar powered homes. However there is one large problem we are facing. The amount of space required to build solar power is incredibly large. Currently, the one of the hugest solar power stations in the world covers more than 10 square miles and creates power to run about 200,000 homes. But what about bigger cities or industry ? It’s definitively not enough. The solution of this problem is more effecient solar cell. It has to increase from 10-20% to at least 50%. Scientists claims it will be possible in few years . So what do you say, is it the time of the solar power?

For more info about solar power and green solutions visit http://BeGreenBlog.com please. I highly recommend you to read articles Solar Power: cut your electric costs now or about water heaters.