Solar Energy

Solar Energy is one of the renewable energy systems that is being developing all over the world today to help to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

What is solar energy? Wikipedia's describes solar energy as "radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies".

As stated solar energy has been harnessed by humans for thousands of years but in my mind this really doesn't explain what it actually is.  

My wife's nephew, Mike, brought a solar energy kit to show me what he was working on. The kit consisted of  a house that was heated and cooled by passive solar energy. Passive solar energy is basically  using only the power of the sun to heat and cool. An example of this would be the solar shower that can be purchased at your local camping supply store or Walmart. You hang the bladder full of water from a tree and the rays of the sun will heat the water enabling you to have a nice warm shower while out camping. Mike's solar kit also included an active solar photovoltaic panel that converted the power of the sun to electricity. The electricity was then used to run a small motor.

  

This is an example of a passive solar system used to heat and cool a house.

 


 An example of  an active solar cells that produce electricity from the sun.    

My wife's nephew was being home schooled at the time and this was one of the projects that he had to do. The kids today sure have a lot of neat things that they can learn about. I do wonder if the public school system is teaching similar things. This type of learning will be most helpful in any child's life as the world changes to alternative energy sources.

Yesterday the post was on charging the batteries on high tech devices. One option was to use a small solar photovoltaic panel to charge the batteries. I will be presenting more information on solar energy and even some helpful tips on how to build your own systems at home in future blogs.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments.