Solar Energy
History in Brief and the Uses

The advantages of Solar energy with brief history of its uses. As the name implies, it is energy derived from the sun and the Sun has been there for millions of years and will be there for millions of years to come. Day after day the sun will come up again and again. Solar power energy is the most diversified form of the common alternative energy sources, through its different forms of uses.

A brief solar energy history
Past solar uses:
From the beginning of earth, from the ancient time to the day, man has used the energy of the sun in various ways as radiant light- or heat source to his benefit. Also different technologies were used for the various necessities.

The light of the sun in combination with shadows of objects were used to express the time of the day. The heat of the sun was used to make fire or boil water or to dry out clothes and even to put meat and fish to dry out for storage purposes. There was no refrigeration in the ancient time.

Present uses:
Nowadays we have other means to light a fire, but we still use the direct heat of the sun to warm water with a solar water heater. We use alternative home heating in the form of solar heat energy to warm or cool our homes. Cook with solar ovens. Lighten dark areas in our home with solar tubular skylights or solar tube. We can use solar power for the production of drinking water (Water distillation).

Other solar power energy uses are: For generating electricity on small- and large scale with the use satellite dish reflectors and solar arrays. We convert the green energy of sunlight into electric energy with the technology of photovoltaic cells or simple solar cells which we find in all solar panels.

Solar Pros and Cons
The sun’s energy will replenish itself every day so it wouldn’t get used up and this is clean energy, without pollution. The only disadvantage of solar energy is, that the sun is up only for a few hours in a day. So we have to create means of storing this energy for the hours the sun won’t be shining.

Links to websites with additional information on Solar
Sunup-Solar-Power.com
provide a one stop information source for solar power for homes.

SolarEnergyExplorer.com
presents more facts about solar.

Green-The-World.com
povides you with another angle to look at the Sun and the planet Earth.

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