5 paragraph essay on solar energy
Essay 1. Every day, the sun radiates an enormous amount of energy. This energy comes from within the sun itself. Like most stars, the sun is a big gas ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. The sun produces energy in a process called nuclear fusion. Four hydrogen nuclei combine or fuse, to form one helium atom, producing radiant energy in the process.
Solar energy
Essay 1. Every day, the sun radiates an enormous amount of energy. This energy comes from within the sun itself. Like most stars, the sun is a big gas ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. The sun produces energy in a process called nuclear fusion. Four hydrogen nuclei combine or fuse, to form one helium atom, producing radiant energy in the process.
The sun radiates more energy in one second than the world has used since time began. Only a small portion of this energy strikes the earth, one part in two billion. About 15 percent of the radiant energy that reaches the earth is reflected back into space. Another 30 percent is used to evaporate water, which is lifted into the atmosphere and produces rainfall. The radiant energy is also absorbed by plants, landmasses and the oceans. Only the tides—caused by the gravitational energy of the moon—and the geothermal energy under the oceans are not solar powered.
Solar energy can also be used to produce electricity with photovoltaic. Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave-power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available renewable energy on earth.
Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used. Solar powered electrical generation relies on heat engines and photovoltaic. A partial list of solar applications includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, potable water via, distillation and disinfection, day lighting, solar hot water, solar cooking and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes. To harvest the solar energy, the most common way is to use solar panels. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy.
Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the sun, selecting materials with favourable thermal mass or light dispersing properties and designing spaces that naturally circulate air. Solar energy refers primarily to the use of solar radiation for practical ends.
However, all renewable energies, other than geothermal and tidal, derive their energy from the sun. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive or active depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute sunlight.
Active solar techniques use photovoltaic panels, pumps and fans to convert sunlight into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques include selecting materials with favourable thermal properties, designing spaces that naturally circulate air and referencing the position of a building to the Sun. Active solar technologies increase the supply of energy and are considered supply side technologies, while passive solar technologies reduce the need for alternate resources and are generally considered demand side technologies.
Essay 2. Energy from the Sun : The Earth receives petawatts PW of incoming solar radiation at the upper atmosphere. Warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection. The latent heat of water condensation amplifies convection, producing atmospheric phenomena such as wind, cyclones and anti-cyclones. By photosynthesis green plants convert solar energy into chemical energy, which produces food, wood and the biomass from which fossil fuels are derived.
In , this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year. Photosynthesis captures approximately 3, EJ per year in biomass. From the table of resources it would appear that solar, wind or biomass would be sufficient to supply all of our energy needs, however, the increased use of biomass has had a negative effect on global warming and dramatically increased food prices by diverting forests and crops into biofuel production.
As intermittent resources, solar and wind raise other issues. Solar energy can be harnessed in different levels around the world. Essay 3. Solar Collector : A solar collector is a solar collector designed to collect heat by absorbing sunlight. The term is applied to solar hot water panels, but may also be used to denote more complex installations such as solar parabolic, solar trough and solar towers or simpler installations such as solar air heat.
The more complex collectors are generally used in solar power plants where solar heat is used to generate electricity by heating water to produce steam which drives a turbine connected to an electrical generator. The simpler collectors are typically used for supplemental space heating in residential and commercial buildings.
A collector is a device for converting the energy in solar radiation into a more usable or storable form. The energy in sunlight is in the form of electromagnetic radiation from the infrared long to the ultraviolet short wavelengths. Solar collectors fall into two general categories: non-concentrating and concentrating.
In the non-concentrating type, the collector area i. In these types the whole solar panel absorbs the light. Flat plate and evacuated tube solar collectors are used to collect heat for space heating or domestic hot water.
The absorber consists of a thin absorber sheet of thermally stable polymers, aluminium, steel or copper, to which a matt black or selective coating is applied often backed by a grid or coil of fluid tubing placed in an insulated casing with a glass or polycarbonate cover. In water heat panels, fluid is usually circulated through tubing to transfer heat from the absorber to an insulated water tank. This may be achieved directly or through a heat exchanger.
Most air heat fabricates and some water heat manufacturers have a completely flooded absorber consisting of two sheets of metal which the fluid passes between. Because the heat exchange area is greater they may be marginally more efficient than traditional absorbers.
Harp traditional design with bottom pipe risers and top collection pipe, used in low pressure thermosyphon and pumped systems. Serpentine one continuous S that maximizes temperature but not total energy yield in variable flow systems used in compact solar domestic hot water only systems no space heating role. Completely flooded absorber consisting of two sheets of metal stamped to produce a circulation zone.
As an alternative to metal collectors, new polymer flat plate collectors are now being produced in Europe. These may be wholly polymer, or they may include metal plates in front of freeze-tolerant water channels made of silicon rubber. Polymers, being flexible and therefore freeze-tolerant, are able to contain plain water instead of antifreeze, so that they may be plumbed directly into existing water tanks instead of needing to use heat exchangers which lower efficiency.
By dispensing with a heat exchanger in these flat plate panels, temperatures need not be quite so high for the circulation system to be switched on, so such direct circulation panels, whether polymer or otherwise, can be more efficient, particularly at low light levels. Some early selectively coated polymer collectors suffered from overheating when insulated, as stagnation temperatures can exceed the melting point of the polymer. For this reason polypropylene is not often used in glazed selectively coated solar collectors.
In areas where freezing is a possibility, freeze-tolerance the capability to freeze repeatedly without cracking can be delivered by the use of flexible polymers.
Silicone rubber pipes have been used for this purpose in UK since Conventional metal collectors are vulnerable to damage from freezing, so if they are water filled they must be carefully plumbed so they completely drain down using gravity before freezing is expected, so that they do not crack.
Many metal collectors are installed as part of a sealed heat exchanger system. Rather than having the potable water flow directly through the collectors, a mixture of water and antifreeze such as propylene glycol which is used in the food industry is used as a heat exchange fluid to protect against freeze damage down to a locally determined risk temperature that depends on the proportion of propylene glycol in the mixture. A pool or unglazed collector is a simple form of flat-plate collector without a transparent cover.
Typically polypropylene or EPDM rubber or silicone rubber is used as an absorber. Used for pool heating it can work quite well when the desired output temperature is near the ambient temperature that is, when it is warm outside.
As the ambient temperature gets cooler, these collectors become less effective. Most if not all vacuum tube collectors use heat pipes for their core instead of passing liquid directly through them. The manifold is wrapped in insulation and covered by a sheet metal or plastic case to protect it from the elements. The vacuum that surrounds the outside of the tube greatly reduces convection and conduction heat loss to the outside, therefore achieving greater efficiency than flat-plate collectors, especially in colder conditions.
This advantage is largely lost in warmer climates, except in those cases where very hot water is desirable, for example commercial process water. The high temperatures that can occur may require special system design to avoid or mitigate overheating conditions. Some evacuated tubes glass-metal are made with one layer of glass that fuses to the heat pipe at the upper end and encloses the heat pipe and absorber in the vacuum.
Others glass-glass are made with a double layer of glass fused together at one or both ends with a vacuum between the layers like a vacuum bottle or flask with the absorber and heat pipe contained at normal atmospheric pressure. Glass-glass tubes have a highly reliable vacuum seal but the two layers of glass reduce the light that reaches the absorber and there is some possibility that moisture will enter the non-evacuated area of the tube and cause absorber corrosion.
Glass-metal tubes allow more light to reach the absorber and protect the absorber and heat pipe contained in the vacuum from corrosion even if they are made from dissimilar materials see galvanic corrosion. The gaps between the tubes may allow for snow to fall through the collector, minimizing the loss of production in some snowy conditions, though the lack of radiated heat from the tubes can also prevent effective shedding of accumulated snow.
A long standing argument exists between protagonists of these two technologies. Some of this can be related to the physical structure of evacuated tube collectors which have a discontinuous absorbance area. Consequently, a square meter of roof area covered with evacuated tubes collector gross area is larger than the area comprising the actual absorbers absorber plate area.
If evacuated tubes are compared with flat-plate collectors on the basis of area of roof occupied, a different conclusion might be reached than if the areas of absorber were compared. In addition, the way that the ISO standard specifies the way in which the efficiency of solar thermal collectors should be measured is ambiguous, since these could be measured either in terms of gross area or in terms of absorber area. Unfortunately, power output is not given for thermal collectors as it is for PV panels.
This makes it difficult for purchasers and engineers to make informed decisions. Flat-plate collectors usually lose more heat to the environment than evacuated tubes and this loss increases with temperature difference. So they are usually inappropriate choice of solar collector for high temperature commercial applications such as process steam production. However this has changed as the technology has advanced to maximize the absorption area. Based on absorber plate area, most evacuated tube systems are more efficient per square meter than equivalent flat plate systems.
This makes them suitable where roof space is limiting, for example where the number of occupants of a building is higher than the number of square meters of suitable and available roof space. In general, per installed square meter, evacuated tubes deliver marginally more energy when the ambient temperature is low e. However even in areas without much sunshine and solar heat, some low cost flat plate collectors can be more cost efficient than an evacuated tube collectors.
Although several European companies manufacture evacuated tube collectors, the evacuated tube market is dominated by manufacturers in the East.
Several Chinese companies have long favourable track records of years. There is no unambiguous evidence that the two collector technologies flat-plate and evacuated tube differ in long term reliability.
Solar energy is the nature available source of energy; it is continuous providing by the Sun. It is the most important of non-conventional s. Free Essay: Solar Energy All life on Earth depends on energy from the sun. Solar energy is the source of energy for photosynthesis. Words | 5 Pages.
Your privacy is important to us. By submitting this form, you consent to AWM Network and up to 4 suppliers contacting you by email, web push, telephone incl. You have certain rights in relation to your personal data, including the right to object to direct marketing. Thank you for using GreenMatch. Did you know that the energy sun provides to the earth for one hour could meet the global energy needs for one year?
Solar energy is the transformation of heat , the energy that comes from the sun. It has been used for thousands of years in many different ways by people all over the world.
The heat and light we receive from the Sun are what constitutes the solar energy. Sun is the ultimate source of life on the earth. Had it not been for Sun, there would not have been any life on Earth and the Earth would have been like any other planet in the solar system.
Solar Energy as an Alternative Source of Energy – Essay
Anyone can learn for free on OpenLearn, but signing-up will give you access to your personal learning profile and record of achievements that you earn while you study. Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available. Solar power is an immense source of directly useable energy and ultimately creates other energy resources: biomass, wind, hydropower and wave energy.
Pros and Cons of Solar Energy
Since the beginning of the existence of this planet, the sun has been an important resource for sustaining both human and plant life. Plants, which we feed on, manufacture their food by using sunlight. Adequate exposure to sunlight has valuable health effects to humans. In addition, since historic times, man has employed the sunlight as a source of generating energy used for various industrial and household purposes. Nonetheless, with the emergence of technology, man slowly turned from increased dependence on solar energy and adopted the use of fossil fuels and other forms of energy generation Morris, It is of essence to note that, with the depletion of fossil fuels, more emphasis is now being put on the use of solar energy as an alternate energy source. However, is its use beneficial, especially in this century? The sunlight can be used in a number of different ways.
According to "That's Solar Power" there is, "The sun is a natural resource. The sun's energy can be used to power homes.
Solar energy is one of the most beneficial sustainable forms of energy that human beings can use for a variety of purposes. It is a thoroughly renewable form of energy and can be used by the entire human race till the end of time.
My Essay Point
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating , photovoltaics , solar thermal energy , solar architecture , molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis. It is an essential source of renewable energy , and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems , concentrated solar power , and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air. The large magnitude of solar energy available makes it a highly appealing source of electricity. This is several times larger than the total world energy consumption , which was In , the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries' energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible, and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability , reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating global warming , and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared". 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. Warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection. When the air reaches a high altitude, where the temperature is low, water vapor condenses into clouds, which rain onto the Earth's surface, completing the water cycle. The latent heat of water condensation amplifies convection, producing atmospheric phenomena such as wind, cyclones and anti-cyclones. The potential solar energy that could be used by humans differs from the amount of solar energy present near the surface of the planet because factors such as geography, time variation, cloud cover, and the land available to humans limit the amount of solar energy that we can acquire.
solar energy Essay
Solar power is the key to a clean energy future. Every day, the sun gives off far more energy than we need to power everything on earth. Solar panels produce electricity by transforming the continuous flow of energy from the sun to electricity. No harmful emissions are released into the air when electricity is produced by solar panels. As a renewable energy source, the only limitation of solar power is our ability to turn it into electricity in an efficient and cost-effective way. No greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere when you use solar panels to create electricity.
