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Solar Energy in Your Home

By Roger Frost


As far back as 5,000 years ago, people "worshiped" the sun. Ra, the sun-god, who was considered the first king of Egypt. In Mesopotamia, the sun-god Shamash was a major deity and was equated with justice. In Greece there were two sun deities, Apollo and Helios. Utilizing the sun's power is considered one of the best sources of Green Energy.

Every hour the sun beams onto Earth more than enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year. Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun's energy and make it useable. Today, the technology produces less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand.

An example of passive solar energy in your home would be a big windows placed on the sunny side of a building to allow sunlight to heat-absorbent materials on the floor and walls. These surfaces then release the heat at night to keep the building warm. Similarly, absorbent plates on a roof can heat liquid in tubes that supply a house with hot water.

The Earth receives 174 petawatts of incoming solar radiation at the upper atmosphere. Approximately 30% is reflected back to space while the rest is absorbed by clouds, oceans and land masses. The spectrum of solar light at the Earth's surface is mostly spread across the visible and near-infrared ranges with a small part in the near-ultraviolet.

United States has made an investment in both solar energy and wind farms. Argentina has recently decided to increase their solar capacity by 35 times current capacity. North America is still dependent on oil and although there is a huge pollution and environmental price will not actively promote the switch to Green Energy in our lifetime.

The dry, sun-drenched desert areas of the southwestern United States hold enormous potential for large-scale deployment of solar energy facilities and systems. Solar energy can be used to generate electricity, monitor ecosystem conditions, pump water for livestock, and provide lighting and communications in remote desert areas. The DOE SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national initiative to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. Reducing the installed cost of solar energy systems by about 75% will drive widespread, large-scale adoption of this renewable energy technology and restore U.S. leadership in the global clean energy race. Our governments have a hard time planning beyond their next election. The chances of them making any tough decisions politically is hard to imagine.




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