The Essence of Solar Energy

(Sun - Courtesy NASA)

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

- Thomas Edison

Solar energy is an abundant clean light and heat energy that comes from the sun, provided by nature for mankind to sustain and cherish in this glamorous universe. Like most stars in the universe, the sun is a giant ball of gas consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium. The sun formulates energy in its inner core by means of a process called nuclear fusion. Through continuous nuclear fusion process, the nuclei of four hydrogen atoms in the sun's core combine to form one helium atom repeatedly. The resulting helium atom has less mass than the four hydrogen atoms that fused with each other. Due to the law of conservation of energy, this "lost mass" is converted into the radiant energy that the sun emits into space. Only a small part of the solar energy that the sun radiates into space ever reaches the earth, but this is plenty enough to supply all our energy needs.

Solar energy is the most powerful source of energy on our planet earth. This energy has been used by mankind for thousands of years. Ancient Greeks were the first to use passive solar design in their housing. The passive solar design refers to the design of architecture that utilizes sun’s energy to light and heat the indoor spaces. The famous Greek philosopher Socrates wrote, "In houses that look toward the south, the sun penetrates the portico in winter." The Greeks used this idea and planned their cities so that each house had good southern exposure. The Romans later enhanced this design by covering south facing building openings with glass or mica to absorb the heat of the sun during winter. This enhancement offset the requirement to burn wood for warming homes during the cold months and resulted in incredible savings for Romans.

Today, we employ the following newest solar energy technologies to produce heat, light and power for our daily energy needs:

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
Concentrating Solar Power systems use reflective materials to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a receiving device that collects the power. This concentrated solar energy then drives a steam generator to produce electricity.

Photovoltaics (PV)
This technology makes use of photosensitive semiconductor elements to convert sunlight directly to electricity which is called Solar Electricity. This Solar Electricity is being used to power small devices for example, watches, calculators and cell phones. It is also used for providing electric power for homes and business.

Solar Heating
Solar heating technologies uses a process whereby heat from the sun is absorbed by low temperature solar collectors and transferred by pumps or fans to a storage unit and then allowing that heat to be used directly for water or space heating in residential, commercial and industrial buildings.

Solar lighting
Solar lighting technologies uses roof mounted mirrored dishes to collect sunlight. These mirrored dishes focus the sunlight onto optical fibers. The optical fibers are connected to hybrid light fixtures equipped with special diffusing rods to spread out the light in all directions in the building's interior. These fixtures are called hybrids because they combine natural light with electric light to illuminate interior spaces.