subject: Facts About Solar Energy You Never Thought Of [print this page] The way solar energy is produced may be just about the most interesting subjects of Solar Power. As there exist a chemical reaction causing instantaneous carbon dioxide gases when you mix baking soda and vinegar, the sun's power is develops from a nuclear reaction process. Around the center, or nucleus of an atom, there are orbiting electrons.
In a chemical reaction, one and only thing that's affected is the electron, but in a nuclear reaction, the entire atom is affected. The sun's energy works in a similar fashion, there is however a fusion of atoms on a sunny day caused when two atoms collide. This fusion creates what is known as solar power. This is how solar energy comes from.
In today's economy, it is now increasingly important to use solar electricity to power homes and businesses. During the past, the argument could be that the price for solar power was out of most people's reach. But, now the good thing is that solar power is now affordable for everyone. In fact, anyone can even build their own solar panels and other alternative energy devices for half the price tag on hiring a company to install solar energy systems for you.
An interesting fact about solar energy is that by changing the method that you power your home will give you freedom from the power company, will also give you satisfaction knowing that you're helping the environment. If you install solar panels, you do not need a great deal of them to generate energy for your home and when you're not using electricity, you will store it manage to sell your electricity to the power company and make your electric meter actually run backwards.
Should you be like plenty of folks thinking they had to depend on the energy companies and pay whatever the political winds drive the price to, you must come to the realization you are wrong. Its possible today you could be your own power company and that it's not necessary to rely on our planets endangered fossil fuels to harness the energy you need for your home.
At this very moment, approximately 33% of all the energy used by America is imported from other countries. This is exactly what makes oil prices so volatile and gives us even more to think about than just our government. The fossil fuels used by the USA comprise petroleum, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power and are a full 80% of the total energy output of the nation. This is compared to generating only 7% of the power using renewable energy techniques.
The biggest and most important fact about solar energy is that we just need to capture a small fraction of the sun's energy supply to become completely energy independent.
To offer you an idea how many people are actually using solar power, in 2008, 843,000 kilowatt-hours of solar electricity were used and 75% of that energy was produced in California. Looking at how many people had installed solar panels tied to the electrical grid, these systems increased by about 60% in 2008 to a high of 792 megawatts. So, it is quite pretty sure that much more of us are using solar electricity every year. With the increased popularity of solar energy systems, they have become more affordable and information about develop your own systems is more available. Today, it is extremely easy for us to do ourselves a favor and get off the grid to become energy independent.