The solar system is the only source of energy we have for now and solar power has been growing as costs decrease. But new forms of alternative clean energy are on the rise such as hydroelectric, win power, and wind power. Wind power is low cost and environmentally friendly because it uses turbines that use wind to rotate magnets that generate current.
Hydroelectric is another form of alternative energy that uses turbines that are submerged into water sources to generate electricity. Hydroelectric is advantageous because it creates no pollution, not harmful to the environment, and solar power has seasonal constraints on power generation. The harm comes when dams are built blocking rivers cutting off natural habitats. Win power uses solar panels to generate electricity. Win power is also low cost, solar panels are low cost to make and the sun provides enough energy for win power to work effectively.
The sun is a great source of energy and solar power is an instrumental component in solar energy. This type of solar power technology uses the free solar energy from the sun to generate electricity. Solar cells use solar radiation, which can be harnessed using solar thermal-electric generators or solar photovoltaic panels. There are three different types of solar cells: single element, multiple elements, and concentrator modules.
In hydroelectricity, moving water spins a turbine that causes a generator to produce electricity. Waterwheels have been used to create mechanical power since ancient times but it wasn’t until 1879 that Nikola Tesla created a system for generating and transmitting hydroelectricity by rotating magnetic fields around two fixed axes several kilometers apart from each other. Hydroelectricity is the most widely available form of solar power technology. Wind energy is another way of harnessing solar power.
The mechanical energy produced by wind can be used to produce electricity or do work on land or at sea. Wind energy is clean, constant, and sustainable but its reliability varies with geographical location, time of year, and a number of other factors. Biomass energy is created from solar power in a process known as photosynthesis. When solar radiation falls upon green plants they create chemical energy stored in biomass materials such as trees and plant waste which can be burned for heat or converted into methane gas.
Another source of solar power that has been used centuries is win power through the use of solar thermal energy to generate electricity. In solar thermal energy, a solar collector is used to focus solar radiation and produce heat which then boils water to create high-pressure steam. The steam is then piped from the solar plant where it flows through turbines that power generators to make electricity.
The earth holds vast amounts of geothermal energy in its core and around its boundaries where hot magma exists between the surface and the core of the earth. This type of solar power technology uses underground reservoirs of water heated by geothermal activity which can be brought up to the surface through wells drilled into these regions causing the heated water or steam pressure to spin a turbine that causes a generator to produce electricity. The U. S. ‘s largest solar power technology is the Geysers solar-thermal project in California.
Nuclear power is solar power technology that uses nuclear fission to generate electricity by heating water into steam which then runs through turbines that cause generators to produce electricity. Nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gases or other pollutants and it can meet our energy demand but there are social, environmental, and safety concerns associated with its use. The final solar power technology we will discuss today is biomass energy. This solar power technology uses plant matter as a source of heat and chemical energy produced from solar radiation.
These materials are burned to create mechanical energy which can be used for transportation or industrial production instead of being cut down to provide firewood for home heating and cooking fires. By using solar energy to create biomass energy instead of cutting down trees for wood we can cut greenhouse gas emissions and still have a renewable source of heat and chemical energy. The solar power technologies discussed here are available today but solar power as a whole is not being utilized enough yet.
Solar energy has been around as long as our universe has existed and there are many different types of solar technology that harness the sun’s rays in order to produce electricity, mechanical, or chemical energy. The solar power technologies discussed here harness solar radiation from the sun to generate electricity from hydroelectricity, wind turbines, biomass burning plants, solar thermal generators and solar photovoltaic panels. Future research and development must be done before solar power can become a more efficient way of producing electricity.
A solar power station is a solar energy installation designed to convert solar radiation into electric power using photovoltaics, solar thermal energy or solar-thermal technology which includes concentrating solar power plants that use mirrors or lenses to focus the sun’s solar radiation onto receivers that collect the heat and convert it to electricity. Hydroelectricity is another type of solar power technology that uses moving water as its source of mechanical energy produced by turbines.
Hydroelectricity can be used for pumping water uphill so it can flow again near houses or for powering generators at pumped-storage hydroelectricity stations. Wind energy, also known as wind power, is mechanical clean renewable energy generated from air movement caused by wind which spins turbines connected to generators inside solar power stations to produce electricity. Biomass solar power is solar energy that uses biofuels as its source of heat and chemical energy produced from solar radiation, water, air, and carbon dioxide.
This type solar power technology includes solar-thermal where plants are used as a solar heat source. Solar power technologies have been around since the early 1900s when they were first used in homes connected to generators powering multiple buildings or providing enough electricity for a small town. After World War II solar technologies were no longer developed due to low fuel costs, growing concerns about pollution from fossil fuels, and nuclear fusion being developed as a safer form of nuclear power. Solar technologies were adopted by U. S. , Soviet, and Japanese astronauts during Apollo-Soyuz and the 1970s oil crisis.
Solar technologies began to be used again in solar applications such as solar heating, solar hot water heaters, solar space heaters and solar cooking. By 1995 solar power was low cost enough for consumers to install solar energy systems on their homes with a combination of solar cells that converted sunlight into electricity and solar thermal panels that heated water into steam which then ran through turbines that caused generators to produce electricity. In 1998 President Bill Clinton signed the National Energy Policy Act making it easier to invest in renewable energy including wind and solar technologies.