In the desert, where sun is very strong during daylight all energy needed for an entire year of human activity can be collected in just 6 hours. A human body seated horizontally, could collect during an entire year about 1500 watts of solar power.
Practically, all power obtained when burning fossil fuels today come from the sun because all plants and prehistoric animals which died millions of years ago have been heated and lighted by the same sun. When all these plants and prehistoric animals died, they were transformed into oil during a very long period of time. This is the oil that we use in today’s society, and contains solar energy collected a very long time ago.
As we know, hydropower receives a little help from the sun because it evaporates only a part of the ocean water, and sends this water to a continuous recycle in the atmosphere. Wind power also receives a little help from the sun, because the entire weather of planet earth is influenced by the solar activity. Biomass receives another help from the sun, because all trees and corn husks that consist in today’s biomass, have their original energy collected from the sun during their life on earth.
When we talk about solar power we think at solar batteries, solar panels, those blue panels that can be seen on the roof of your house, and are used to produce green energy. The history of solar batteries goes back to the year 1839, when a 19 year old student named Edmund Becquerel made a great discovery for its time. This young student, discovered the photoelectric effect and this is a process used today by photovoltaic cells to harvest energy from sunlight.
The most efficient areas where we can harvest the biggest quantity of solar energy can be found in remote and open areas not in cities or living areas. To obtain the most efficient solar panels, they need to be installed in open spaces and outside the human activity.
When we use solar energy produced by solar panels located on our roof, we can produce only the power needed for everyday activities, and with this process we can increase the efficiency of our solar panels, and help them to be competitive against other energy sources.
With the new scientific discoveries, we are ready to use a new material called graphene to increase the quantity of light that enters a photovoltaic cell. This way, the amount of energy generated by the photovoltaic cell will be increased, and we can improve the efficiency of the cell itself.
There is another method used today to produce solar power, and this process uses mirrors on a big scale. With this new method, mirrors will concentrate light to a single point. A field filled with many mirrors will contain in its center a big tower where all energy is focused, and all these mirrors will send their energy to a point located on the top of the tower. That point will be the source of heat for water, oil or any other agent used.
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