So What's Solar Energy?

It is as important to learn the "history" or solar energy as well as "what solar power is," as well as the part which now plays in today's own individual lives together with our environment.

Individuals have harnessed solar technology for years and years. Around the 7th century B.C., people used simple magnifying glasses to target the sunlight of the sun into beams so hot they'd cause wood to trap fire. More than a hundred years ago in France, a scientist used heat coming from a solar collector to make steam to get a steam engine. In the early stages of the century, scientists and engineers began researching ways to use solar energy in earnest. This started in the early 1920s and was at full swing prior to The Second World War. This growth lasted before mid-1950s when low-cost gas had become the primary fuel for heating American homes. People and world governments remained largely indifferent to the possibilities of solar energy before the oil shortages of the 1970s. Today, people use solar power to heat buildings and water also to generate electricity.

WHAT IS SOLAR ENERGY EXACTLY?
Solar energy is the radiant strength that is created by the sun. Every single day, the sun radiates or sends out an enormous amount of energy. The sun radiates more energy in a single second than people have used since the beginning of time! Where does the energy originate from that constantly radiate out of the sun? It comes from inside the sun itself. Like other stars, the sun is a huge ball of gases which contain mostly hydrogen and helium atoms. The hydrogen atoms in the sun combine to create helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion. During nuclear fusion, the sun's unusually high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms to get apart and their nuclei (the central cores of the atoms) to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to get one helium atom though, the helium atom contains less mass compared to four hydrogen atoms that fused. Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion which lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy. It takes millions of years for the energy from the sun's core to make its route to the solar surface, after which, slightly over eight minutes to travel 93 million miles to earth. The solar power travels to the earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light.

Merely a small portion of the energy radiated by sun into space strikes the earth, one part in two billion, yet this level of energy is enormous. Every single day enough energy strikes the United States to deliver the nation's energy needs for one and a half years! Where does all this energy go? About fifteen percent of the sun's energy that hits the earth is reflected back to space. Another 30 % is utilized to evaporate water, which is lifted to the atmosphere and produces rainfall. Solar energy is also absorbed by plants, the land, and the oceans. The remainder would be useful to supply our energy needs.


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