Joules digital magazine

5/31/17

Joules Magazine INSIDE… What is Solar Energy?

What Can Solar Energy Do?

By: Sophia Sims & Madison Kuci

Solar Energy

Table of Contents About Solar Energy Everyday

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Around the World

Solar Energy uses - 11 -5

Examples of Energy Conservation - 6 Advertisement-7 Renewable and Nonrenewable -8 Fun Facts - 9

Advertisement - 10

What can Solar Energy do 12 Advertisement - 13 News 3 - 14 News 4 - 15 News 5 - 16 References - 17

About Solar Energy Solar is a latin word that means sun. Solar energy is energy that comes from the sun and is converted into thermal or electrical energy.

Solar energy is a very powerful source of energy that can heat, cool, and even light our homes or offices. It is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available. The US has some of the richest solar resources in the world.

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About Solar Energy Technology is used to harness this energy and use it in many different ways. Multiple types of technologies convert energy into usable energies for homes or businesses. There are a series of popular solar technologies.

The technology is solar water heating, passive solar design for heating and cooling, and solar photovoltaics,which is used for electricity.

Solar Energy. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2017, from http://www.earthtimes.org/environment/solar-energy/

On The Daily

Around the World Germany is the number one location in the world for solar energy. It has, by far, the highest capacity. Solar energy is the third most important renewable source in terms of globally installed capacity and in 2012, more than 100 GW(Gigawatt) of solar power is used around the world. It produces about 110 TWH(TeraWatt Hour) of electricity every year. Solar energy exists in almost every location around the globe. Not every place could be suitable for a solar power panel.

Solar Energy Around the World

Energy Conservation

Renewable & Nonrenewable

Renewable energy is energy that comes from a source that will not run out such as wind or solar power. Non renewable energy is energy that comes from a source that will deplete such as fossil fuels or coal. Energy is produced without natural resources. Solar Energy is a renewable energy while electricity which is made using coal, and natural gas is not.

Fun Facts

Solar cells capture wavelengths of solar radiation and then converts it into electricity. Solar energy can be used to run air conditioning, hot water, heaters, natural gas, electricity, and oil fuel. If the sun's not shining at the moment, someone can use a special battery as backup for the solar panel. Solar Panel’s do not need sunlight to produce electricity. Direct sunlight does produce the most energy. Solar power is one of the cleanest, most sustainable, and most renewable in the world.

Solar Energy uses The facilities of solar energy is to use concentrating solar power. This can be used as a heat source for boiling or converting sunlight into electricity. This can only happen if someone uses solar cells. The conversion from sunlight to electricity is called photovoltaics.

Solar energy that reaches the sun can be produced into electricity or heat through the use of solar collectors. For example when you have a closed car it can be viewed as solar collectors because the light energy can pass through the glass from the window and absorbed by the car's interior and then, converted into heat energy.

What Can Solar Energy Do? There are special plants called conventional plants that use fossil fuel. Nuclear energy is also a heat source to help boil water. When you boil water, the steam rotates a turbine to produce electricity. Solar energy facilities use concentrating solar power as a heat source to boil water, as a heat source, or convert sunlight to electricity. Solar power can be converted because of solar cells.

The CSP technology are referred to as solar thermal or thermoelectric technologies.

PV is referred to as solar electric or photoelectric technologies. There are many types of CSP systems such as linear, power tower, and dish engine. The CSP plants consist of two parts, one that collects solar energy and one that converts it into heat.

Numbers in the News

References https://www.nrel.gov/workingwithus/re-solar.html http://www.seia.org/about/solar-energy http://energyinformative.org/where-is-solar-power-used-t he-most/ https://www.solarpowerauthority.com/25-facts-about-sola r-power/ https://www.nrel.gov/workingwithus/learning.html https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/non-ren ewable-energy/ https://teeic.indianaffairs.gov/er/solar/restech/uses/index.h tm