Our planet receives about 174 petawatts of heat radiation from the sun. Solar energy is free energy we can use. About 30% bounces back to space while clouds, land and bodies of water absorb the remaining radiation. This totals to about 3,850,000 exajoules of sun energy absorbed by Earths atmosphere annually.
Man has used sun power, which comes from the heat of the sun, since the olden times. Solar energy is free energy source for the people. It does not require fuel and does not cause pollution.
The heat from sun that reaches our planet is twice as much as the amount of power that will be harnessed for a very long time from natural gas, coal and oil. Due to this advantage, modern solar technologies are presently being used to harness power. Some solar applications used nowadays are water heating, heating and cooling architectures, electricity production, cells powered satellites and for industrial purposes.
Recently a lot of buildings are designed with the utilization of passive sun heating. The design usually includes huge windows created from materials that retains heat. The place of storage for the collected sun heat is in the walls and the floors. These continually release heat when it is cold especially when it is nighttime. With this development, the owners can now put aside some money for other uses.
Passive sun systems are also used by different power plants. Some have transferred from using fossil fuels into using sun heat. Sun power systems which include the parabolic-through, power tower and dish are used.
Parabolic-through focus the power from the sun through slanted curved mirrors. These focuses the light to pipes that contains oil which in turn heats the water used in a generator for electricity production. The dish system and power tower system use mirrors to focus light from the sun in order to produce electricity as well.
Aside from heating, this is also used as a cooling power source. Like an air conditioner, cooling devices generate power from the heat. Aside from this, evaporative coolers also use this for its power source.
Water heating with the use of this heat is also another application which uses glass panels to collect heat. Glass panels are placed on roofs where pipes with water are pumped from the bottom in order to propel the hot water from the top. This way gas or electricity is saved.
And unknown to most of us, the satellites that orbit the earth utilize cells as its source of power. These satellites are important for our usage of TV, telephones, internet and different types of navigation system. This goes to show that we are using heat from sun as a free source of power.
Solar energy is a free energy source of power. In the olden times and until now, we have used the sun to dry our clothes and even dry our food. However, only a small amount of this unlimited natural resource is used. But with mankind’s development of new technologies, we are able to fully make use of this resource. And we are all enjoying this for free.
At Solar Systems USA, we are convinced that the need to transition from fossil fuel dependency is not just the duty of governments but for us all. Our online solar store has products and information to get you started on this noble cause.
