Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar energy technologies include solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity and solar architecture, which can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces.
Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.
In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries’ energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared".
Read more about Solar Energy: Energy From The Sun, Applications of Solar Technology, Energy Storage Methods, Development, Deployment and Economics, ISO Standards
Other articles related to "solar energy, solar, energy":
... a number of standards relating to solar energy equipment ... ISO 10217 relates to the materials used in solar water heaters ...
... The integral of solar irradiance over a time period is solar irradiation or insolation ... SI radiometry units v t e Quantity Symbol SI unit Symbol Dimension Notes Radiant energy Qe joule J M⋅L2⋅T−2 energy Radiant flux Φe watt W M⋅L2⋅T−3 radiant energy per unit time, also ... commonly measured in W⋅m−2⋅nm−1 or 10−22W⋅m−2⋅Hz−1, known as solar flux unit Radiant exitance / Radiant emittance Me watt per square metre W⋅m−2 M⋅T−3 power emitted from a surface ...
... primary obstacle that is preventing the large scale implementation of solar powered energy generation is the inefficiency of current solar technology ... At this rate, many experts believe that solar energy is not efficient enough to be economically sustainable given the cost to produce the panels themselves ... Both Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), have heavily funded solar research programs ...
... In response to high energy costs, an energy task force for the Soldiers Grove relocation recommended that the new business district make use of solar heating ... that it was feasible for new buildings to achieve a majority of their heat from solar energy ... To meet the solar energy requirements, buildings in the new business district were constructed with heavy insulation and earth-berming to supply thermal mass ...
... last three years publicly traded alternative energy have been very volatile, with some 2007 returns in excess of 100%, some 2008 returns down 90% or more, and peak-to-trough returns in 2009 again over 100% ... In general there are three subsegments of “alternative” energy investment solar energy, wind energy and hybrid electric vehicles ... Alternative energy sources which are renewable, free and have lower carbon emissions than what we have now are wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy ...
Famous quotes containing the words energy and/or solar:
“Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Lincoln becomes the American solar myth, the chief butt of American credulity and sentimentality.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)