There are a wide variety of technologies that have been designed and developed in order to take advantage of solar energy. These include photovoltaic systems, solar electricity, passive solar heating and daylight and solar space heating and cooling systems. In this section we explore each of these renewable energy solutions.
Solar Process Space Heating and Cooling
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Passive Solar Heating and Daylighting
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Passive Solar Heating and Daylighting is uncommonly sensible. However it is not yet been adopted as a general requirement into municipal building codes. It should be incorporated into every design of a structure. Step outside on a hot and sunny summer day, and you'll feel the power of solar heat and light. Today, many buildings are designed to take advantage of this natural resource through the use of passive solar heating and daylighting.
Solar Electricty
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Solar Electricity - Many power plants today use fossil fuels as a heat source to boil water. The steam from the boiling water rotates a large turbine, which activates a generator that produces electricity. However, a new generation of power plants, with concentrating solar power systems, uses the sun as a heat source. There are three main types of concentrating solar power systems: parabolic-trough, dish/engine, and power tower.
Solar Hot Water
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Photovoltaic (solar cell) Systems
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Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. Solar cells are often used to power calculators and watches.
They are made of semiconducting materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect.
