Solar energy consists of the light and heat emitted by the sun, as electromagnetic radiation.

With today’s technology, we could capture this radiation and turn it into usable forms of power – such as heating or electricity.

Although one could go into technical dissertations about electromagnetic radiation, how it is converted into energy, and the exact qualities of its electromagnetic rays, this is simply not something the person needs or wants to know.

But to be able to take advantage of the use of solar power, there are many facts you have to know. Knowing these facts can help you to make sound decisions, when viewing using it as a clean energy source for your home, RV, or in any case may be.

Environmental Facts about Solar Energy

All life on earth is determined by solar energy. In fact, without it, there would be no life at all. Even the lowest life forms, such as plankton and microbes, need solar power (by means of sunlight) to live.

Solar power is completely environmental friendly, producing absolutely no carbon emissions or other harmful byproducts whatsoever. Quite a few successfully and cost-effectively almost any place on this planet.

You don’t need to exist in a tropical or desert climate so as to benefit from this power. It is often used successfully in many cold climates as well as the Polar Regions.

Every the main United States receives sufficient sunlight to benefit from and take advantage of solar technology.

Currently, the cheapest and ultimate way of using this kind of energy at your residence is using solar water heating systems. In fact, solar water heating systems have been commercially available in the USA for over 100 years.

Solar energy can be utilized for heating homes effectively in cold climates, plus warm climates. In fact, solar heating has been around use many cold-climate northern European countries for several decades now.

Solar technology has advanced so much that it could be now be a viable and cost-effective replacement for regular grid-electricity.

This form of power is rapidly increasing in popularity – so much in fact that the demand for solar-powered gadgets is currently greater than the supply.

Facts about Solar Energy Usage

Solar power may be used to provide electricity, heating and hot water for homes, and for heating swimming pools. Many pools in Scandinavia and Europe in fact use solar heating.

It is used to run vehicles, such as solar-powered cars, and even solar-powered airplanes. NASA has successfully designed, built, and tested an airplane which is operated wholly with solar power.

Other examples are solar battery chargers, solar flashlights, solar calculators, solar radios, solar-powered attic fans, solar backpacks (to recharge batteries and small devices), hybrid solar chargers (for cell phones, satellite phones, and more), solar-powered garden lights … and much, much more.

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General Facts

Solar energy is environmentally-friendly

Electrical energy production for the heating of water and production of electricity are just two ways that you gain from utilizing sunlight. Drying out your clothes in direct sunlight is as well another benefit of utilizing right from and light.

This energy can also let you warmth up your swimming pool and also power up small appliances or a vehicle.

You’ll be able to make your food with sunlight.

The international need for solar energy is maintaining growth on an annual basis and is currently bigger than the supply.

Solar Energy Facts Interpreting Usage

This energy is usually calculated to create “kilowatt hours” (kWh) or 1,000 W, which equals to the quantity of electricity needed to light up a 100 W light bulb for 10 hours.

Around 43% of the solar energy consumption nowadays is applied for heating water.

Facts about Systems Utilized for Producing Solar Energy

Solar energy systems for the home consist of 6 parts – a battery, a charge controller, an inverter, solar panels, a support structure, and wiring.

Solar systems for the house that are rated as a 1-kilowatt system usually take about one to two days for installation and usually cost $10,000 and up with respect to the size of the home that is being powered by the system.

A 1-kilowatt system requires a space of roughly 100 square feet for installation purposes and usually consists of 10 to 12 solar electric cells.

If your place receives typically 5 hours of direct sunlight per day, a 1-kilowatt this energy system can generate about 1,600 kWh annually. That figure falls to less than 50 % the output living in a climate prone to cloudy days.

A 1-kilowatt system eliminates the burning of about 170 pounds of coal, 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the air, and saves up to 105 gallons of water supply consumption monthly.

A lot of the solar energy systems on the marketplace today have a 5-year warranty although the life of solar panels has been estimated at up to 25-30 years.

Relying on the battery backup, solar panels can supply electrical energy 24×7, even on cloudy days and at night.

Other Interesting Facts about Solar Energy:

If the sun suddenly disappeared, we still receive sunlight for 8 minutes

Electric ovens take the most amount of electrical energy, followed by microwaves and central heat and air.

All Television and communications satellites are powered by solar panels.

In one minute more sunlight falls on the earth than what is utilized by the whole population in one year.

Approximately 2 billion people on the globe are presently without electrical energy.

In the 1830s British astronomer John Herschel used a sunlight collector box to cook food during an expedition to Africa.

Da Vinci predicted a solar industrialization dating back to 1447.

In 5 billion years the sun will exhaust fuel.

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Fun facts about solar power are popular at any age. People want serious information about solar power, but sometimes, even the serious can be expressed in fun facts.

Fun facts on solar power include things for example the fact that, in one hour, enough sunlight reaches the earth’s surface to meet the entire world’s energy needs for a full year. Imagine! That information comes from the American Solar Energy Society.

Here are a few more fun facts on solar power.

12 Fun Facts on Solar Power

* Around 1921, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for experiments with solar power and photovoltaic. It was awarded to Albert Einstein.

* When silicon is taken from just one ton of sand, and used in photovoltaic solar panel products, that silicon can produce as much electricity as 500,000 tons of burning coal.

* In the U.S., San Francisco spa than 10,000 homes that get their energy entirely from solar power.

* Nearly 200 years ago, a British astronomer named John Herschel cooked food with solar power during an journey to Africa.

* California opened its first large solar power plant in 1982.

* Solar power can cut water bills by more than 50 percent each year in the house where a solar model replaces the electric water heater.

* The price tag on photovoltaic (PV) solar panel products has dropped 200 percent during the last 30 years, good Doe. Owners now pay between 10 and 40 cents per kilowatt-hour.

* A study by the U.S. United states doe (USDOE) showed that solar power conditions were close to perfect (99 percent) in San Francisco on June 14th, 2000. On that day, 100,000 customers in that area lost power. Solar power could have provided all they needed.

* Another USDOE study showed that the roofs of California’s city and county buildings, if covered with solar PV panels, could generate 200 megawatts of clean electricity! Cover California’s school roofs with residential solar panels and you add 1,500 megawatts more to the state’s peak power supply.

* In California, covering every available commercial and industrial roof with solar panel products could generate the much electricity needed in that state during the daytime.

* Germany is making the best use of solar power, even though its climate includes many cloudy days.

* It takes only about 8 minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to the earth.

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There are tons of cold, hard facts about solar energy out there, but what about fun facts about solar energy?

While solar energy and its related renewable energy cousins, such as wind, geothermal and hydroelectricity, are serious business and options that are being considered to be potential saviors of our planet as we look at a future that has the threat of global warming hanging over it, i am not saying to say there’s not a lighter side to solar and renewable energy.

Sometimes you’ve just constantly some fun and let off some steam in amongst all the serious business of saving money and preserving the planet, so let’s do just that and check out some fun facts about solar energy.

1. Solar energy is available to us in 2 forms – light and heat.

2. When you open your drapes each morning to let some light in, were you aware that you’re also heating up your home?

3. The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second and it takes light approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth. So, light covers the distance of over 90 million miles from the sun within just 10 minutes!

4. Particles of light are called photons.

5. The “photovoltaic effect” was discovered in the 19th century by French physicist, Edmund Becquerel, when he noticed that when light struck a semiconductor material such as selenium, it generated a small electrical charge.

6. The word photovoltaic is combining the words “photon”, meaning, a particle of light, and “volt”, being a measure of electrical force.

7. Modern solar cells operate using the photovoltaic effect, with silicon acting as the semiconductor.

8. Next time you eat Springlike chips, don’t throw the tube away. You need to use it to heat hot dogs! It’s true. You just need the can, a skewer (slightly longer than the can), copier transparency and Scotch tape. Cut a rectangular opening about 6 inches by 3 inches in the heart of the can in an attempt to create 2 flaps. Pull the flaps back and cover the opening with the transparency. Put a hole in the metal end of the can and one in the plastic top. Thread a hot dog onto the skewer and put the skewer inside the can so one end goes through the hole in the metal end and then thread the hole in the plastic top over the other end of the skewer, in order that the skewer with the hot dog on it is suspended during the can. Take the cooker out and place it in direct sunlight, adjusting it here and there to ensure it’s tracking the sun, and, within 30 minutes or so, you ought to have a freshly cooked hot dog!

9. In the 19th century, John Herschel, a British astronomer, cooked food using solar thermal heat while on an African expedition (Absolutely suit, what did he cook?!!??! A hot dog?).

10. Solar panels and solar collectors are different. A panel converts sunlight to electricity and a collector absorbs heat which it transfers to air or liquid.

11. The sun beams down more energy in 1 hour than the whole planet can use in an entire year.

12. Solar energy is used to power more than 10,000 houses in the U.S.A.

In the serious world of solar, a world that sometimes takes itself a tad too seriously, it’s good to let off steam and lighten things up a bit and just have some powerful fun. Hopefully, these facts made your solar day much more fun.

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