subject: Solar Power - Fun Facts [print this page] 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
* As soon as 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., decreasing 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 a 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 buying price of photovoltaic (PV) solar power systems has dropped 200 percent during the last 30 years, well us department of energy. 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 solar panel products 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.
