The easiest way to capture the heat energy of the sun is to use it to heat water. In countries with regular supply of abundant sunlight, the roofs of the houses have tanks with water that gets heated by the sunlight. ‘Solar houses’ can now be seen in various countries across the world.
Continue reading “How can we capture the heat energy of the sun?”
The major part of all solar cells is made of silicone, which is a semi-conductor. Semi-conductors are substances that conduct electricity only under the action of light or heat. When light particles fall on a solar cell, they bounce off electrons from the silicone layer. These electrons wander to the opposite layer, when an electrical field is applied. The upper and the lower sides of the cell thereby get electrically charged and generate an electrical voltage. This is tapped via electrode and produces – similar to a battery – direct current. This current can be used directly or fed directly to the electricity grid after being converted into alternating current.
Solar collectors supply us with solar energy in the form of heat, and solar or photovoltaic systems convert the solar energy into electricity with the help of solar cells. Although these solar plants work very well and supply electricity to many parts of the world, it is worthwhile to establish them only in areas with regular and abundant sunlight. Till now, only one-thousandth of the electricity consumed all over the world comes from such plants. The reason is that the sun does not always shine in many European countries and a single solar cell is not sufficient to provide adequate electricity. Research is being carried out to develop them further because the advantages are tremendous. For instance, the generation of ‘solar current’ will make a pollution-free environment.
A discussion on solar sails on the television often implies the umbrella-like stretched surfaces around the satellites or the International Space Station (ISS). These are solar plants, which provide energy to the objects in space flight. Strictly speaking, the solar sail is a new technology, which uses the pressure of the solar radiation to drive the space probes.
Like the ‘solar sail’, the magnetic sail is also a new possibility for using the solar energy to power spaceships or space probes. This would become possible through the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles, coming from the sun. However, this method is still under research.
There are a lot of strong forces in the nuclei of atoms, which keep the particles together. There are two ways to release the energy hidden in the atomic nuclei. We can fuse them with one another, as occurs in the core of the stars, or we can split them, which is done in at nuclear power plants. To split an atom to release energy, a chain reaction is required in a reactor. Many people consider the atomic power plants also called nuclear power plants dangerous because radioactive material is released in this process.
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