subject: What is Solar Energy? [print this page] What is Solar Energy? What is Solar Energy?
We all know that the sun is very important not only for us humans but also for other living things. It provides us light to brighten the Earth and heat to keep us warm during the day. The energy produced by the sun is what we call the solar energy. This solar energy is available everywhere we are and because of technology, we learned that there is much more benefits that we can get from solar energy. The sun gives out tremendous amount of energy and the energy it radiates in a second is already equivalent to the power people used ever since. This is how great power the sun has.
In the ancient times, the sun is used to generate heat that our natives use for cooking and even at present on our everyday living we use sun to dry our clothes, warm our body and most of all generate power to make our equipments at home work and lighten our homes. This is where solar energy comes in. Solar energy is now utilized by homeowners to generate their own electricity at home. This makes them independent from power electric companies so they don't have to pay high monthly electricity bills. Accumulating solar energy is done by setting up solar panels on top of the roof or using solar thermal collectors. These solar panels collect power from the sun and this solar energy can generate electricity that one can use at home.
There are two types of solar energy techniques: the active and the passive. Active techniques include installation of solar panels while passive techniques include positioning a house or building towards the sun, choosing materials with high thermal mass or creating a space where air can circulate.
Solar energy is now getting popular because of the great advantages that users can get from it. It is one of the renewable sources of energy that is clean, safe to use and very efficient. You can even store the energy in storage batteries then use it at night. Researches are endlessly performed to present the other benefits and applications we can use solar energy. In no time, a lot of people will be convinced of the practicality and many advantages solar energy provides.
