Learn about solar energy - Part 1

One component of green homes is solar energy. Many consumers have questions about this form of energy for their home, so we are running a series of articles on the subject from Barbara Young from 12voltsolarpanels.net to help better understand this technology. This is part one of a series of articles on the subject.

What's solar power?

Solar energy is radiant energy that is produced by the Sun. Every day the Sun radiates, or sends out, an immense volume of energy. The Sun radiates more energy in a second than people have used since the beginning of time!

The energy of the Sun originates from within the Sun itself. Like other stars, the sun is known as a big ball of gases––mostly hydrogen and helium atoms.

The hydrogen atoms in the Sun’s core combine to create helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion.

During nuclear fusion, the sun’s extremely high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms to come apart and their nuclei (the central cores of the atoms) to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to become one helium atom. However the helium atom contains less mass compared to four hydrogen atoms that fused. Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion. The lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy.

It requires many years for the energy in the Sun’s core to make its way to the solar surface, after which somewhat over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to Earth. The solar energy travels to the Earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the velocity of sunshine.

Simply a small percentage of the energy radiated from the Sun into space strikes the Earth, one part in two billion. Yet this quantity of energy is enormous. Every single day enough energy strikes the USA to provide the nation’s energy needs for one and a half years!


Where does all this energy go?

About 15 percent of the Sun’s energy that hits the Earth is reflected back to space. Another 30 percent is used to evaporate water, which, lifted into the atmosphere, produces rainfall. Solar energy is absorbed by plants, the land, and the oceans. The remaining could be employed to supply our energy needs.

Part 2: Who invented solar technology, and How do we use solar power today? COMING SOON!

About the writer - Barbara Young writes on solar RV kits in her personal hobby web site 12voltsolarpanels.net. Her work is devoted to helping people save energy using solar powered energy to reduce CO2 emissions and energy dependency.