Thứ Năm, 17 tháng 1, 2013

Solar Energy - Harnessing the Sun's Power

As the world tires to wean itself off of fossil fuels, green energy alternatives like wind power are gaining more prominence. There are many different kinds of green energy alternatives: besides wind, there is geothermal energy, tidal power, and biofuel. And then there is the granddaddy of them all: solar energy.
Solar energy is energy generated directly or indirectly from the sun's rays. The Earth itself operates on solar energy, so it is no wonder that we should harness that energy in other ways as well.
The simplest way to use solar energy is to use the sun's rays as a heat source. In the same way that campers can use the sun to heat or even cook food, energy producers can heat a liquid like water by exposing it to the sun. That hot water can be used to heat a building, to heat a pool, or even to heat tap water. It can also be used to boil water to create steam, which in turn is used to generate electricity using a turbine -- the same technology used by nuclear power generation, but without any of the dangerous byproducts.
The other way to use solar energy is to generate electricity using photovoltaic technology, commonly referred to as "solar cells". Photovoltaic technology revolves around special materials that when exposed to direct sunlight capture some of the sun's energy and convert it directly to electricity: when hit by a ray of sunlight, a chemical reaction occurs within the solar cell and free electrons are released. The conversion ratio is not that efficient, unfortunately, which means a lot of solar cells over a large area are required to generate significant amounts of electricity. Researchers are hard at work trying to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic technologies to create smaller, more powerful solar cell installations.
Solar energy is not foolproof, of course, and it often makes sense to have energy source available as an alternative. Solar power is affected by weather (you will generate less energy on cloudy days) and by the length of the day -- there's no solar power generation at night! At high northern or southern latitudes solar power loses a lot of its appeal because of the long (sometimes for days or even weeks on end) periods without sun power and the general weakness of the sun's rays. Those places require a different method of power generation.
These drawbacks are mitigated to some extent with the use of powerful battery technology. If you have a way to store excess energy, you can generate a surplus when the sun is shining and save some of the extra energy for times when solar power is unavailable or insufficient.
Expect to see many breakthroughs in solar energy over the next few years. With so much of the world's population living in sunny climates, especially in developing countries, solar energy is the most effective and eco-friendly energy source available.
Eric Giguere is a co-founder of Synclastic Media, an exciting network of content sites like Surveys and Rebates, a comprehensive directory of online rebates, rewards and promotions.

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