15 Amazing Solar Energy Facts You Don’t Know About!
Almost all of us have used the solar energy in a way or two without even noticing it! This energy power house existed from ages, and people had used it for various purposes, cooking for example.
What is Solar Energy?
The energy that is generated by the Sun is known as Solar Energy. It’s one of the oldest and renewable methods of getting the energy.
There are many advantages using solar energy, but the major two advantages are
It’s Totally Free: as you know Sun is everywhere and you can avail it freely!
Its Nature Friendly: The solar energy does not produce any pollutants and is one of the clean sources of power. People are using it for different purposes from home lighting, cooking, using as a vehicle fuel etc.
There’s been a growing number of experiments/research going in the solar energy system new and improve appliances and solar products are popping up all over the world every now and then.
Below is an ongoing list (so bookmark it for future reference & update) of Interesting Solar Energy Facts and uses.
- Solar Energy is one of the oldest, free, renewable and nature friendly power house.
- It takes less than 10 minutes for the light to complete the distance of 90 million miles, note that the Sun is 90 million miles away from the Earth.
- The earth receives about 1,366 watts of direct solar radiation per square meter.
- The Sun energy is too powerful that it takes only 0.01% of the energy to fulfill the entire population of the earth’s energy requirements.
- Mojave Desert in California is the place where world’s largest solar power plant has been setup, covering 1000 acres.
- Space missions have been using solar energy to power spaceships from last five or so decades.
- There are so many uses of solar energy, one such is photosynthesis, solar energy is converted by green plants into chemical energy that produces the bio mass that makes up the fossil fuels.
- Solar energy can also be used for making clean, salty water without using electricity or chemicals, waste water can be treated.
- Solar energy also used in common domestic use in the form of solar panels which sop up solar energy to use for various purposes such as home lighting, cooking and heating water.
- Solar energy is used in many applications including Electricity, Evaporation, Biomass, Heating water and buildings and even for transport.
- A common person in the United States pays around 100 times as much in subsidies for fossil fuels as he does for solar energy.
- Solar power is the most exciting use of solar energy. It is how solar energy is converted into electricity by using either photo voltaic or concentrated solar power. Photoelectric effect is used by Photo voltaic to convert solar energy into electric energy.
- Solar energy is a perfect choice for temporary electricity uses, for example Olympics, temporary fairs, mining sites etc.
- Global solar PV power capacity grew from about 2.2 GW in 2002 to 100 GW in 2012.
Solar PV Capacity Growth
[Source: Renewable 2013 Global Status Report] - There are now about 1.36 million jobs in the global solar PV industry.
Jobs in Solar PV Industry
There are also about 892,000 in the solar heating & cooling industry.
[Source: Renewable 2013 Global Status Report]
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a growing number of incredible solar energy facts & uses. These facts have become a blessing for all of us, as a consumer of energy in one way or other. We strongly encourage you start using solar powered products and/or services if you haven’t started utilize the solar energy. Some research say that Solar Energy is evolving, look at these stats, in the United States solar energy adoption is less than 1%, so we have a long way to go.
