Americas Solar Energy Potential
Every hour, the sun radiates more energy onto the earth than the entire human population uses in one whole year.
The technology required to harness the power of the sun is available now. Solar power alone could provide all of the energy Americans consume there is no shortage of solar energy. The following paragraphs will give you the information you need to prove this to yourself and others. You do not need advanced math skills to follow and perform the arithmetic examples shown below. Anyone who can balance a checkbook or calculate the total square feet of floor space in his or her home, and understand why an area measuring 10 yards by 10 yards equals 100 square yards, can perform the following arithmetic examples and prove that American energy independence could be achieved with solar energy alone.
Science tells us that every square meter of the earths surface, when exposed to direct sunlight, receives about 1000 watts of energy from the suns light. Depending on the angle of sunlight, which changes with the time of day, and the geographical location , the power of the suns light will be somewhat more or less than 1 kilowatt-hour per hour for every square meter of the earths surface exposed to the sun.
Americans can assume, at least in the Sunbelt regions of the southwestern United States, that every square yard of land exposed to direct sunlight will receive about 5 kilowatt-hours per day of solar energy.
What does this mean?
How Much Of The Suns Energy Reaches Earth
4.9/5energysunreach EarthSunsenergyreachesEarthenergyreach EarthEarth
approximately 1,000 W/m2
One may also ask, how much energy hits the earth every second from the sun? The total solar energy per second on a surface perpendicular to the Sun is about 1350 Joules per square meter or about 0.275 watt-hours. Taking into account incidence angle and the surface area, the effective energy arriving at the Earth is about 1.75E17 Joules per second. A lot of that is reflected away from clouds.
Additionally, how does the suns energy reaches the earth?
When the Suns energy moves through space, it reaches Earths atmosphere and finally the surface. This radiant solar energy warms the atmosphere and becomes heat energy. This heat energy is transferred throughout the planets systems in three ways: by radiation, conduction, and convection.
How much solar energy reaches Earth on a cloudless day?
On a cloudless day, each square meter of Earths surface is bombarded with about one kilowatt of energy in a single hour of sunlight. Put another way, the amount of solar energy that hits the surface of the earth in one hour is greater than the total amount of energy that the entire human population requires in a year.
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Energy From Sun To Earth
The Sun is generally considered to produce a constant amount of power with a surface intensity of 6.33 \times 10^7 \frac , expressed in units of power per unit area. As the Suns rays spread into space this radiation becomes less and less intense as an inverse square law. The average radiation intensity that hits the edge of the Earths atmosphere is known as the solar constant, or I_. Although this value is called a constant it varies by about 7% between January 4th , when the Earth is closest to the sun, and July 4th , when the Earth is furthest away. Therefore a yearly average is used and is determined to be 1367 \frac. To determine this value from solar flux, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is used. As well, the total solar flux not solar flux per unit area must be determined. Then the total solar flux from the Sun is divided by the surface area of a sphere that has a radius equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This accounts for the spreading of the solar energy. The expression to determine this value is:
To determine the average amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth, we must consider what the Earth looks like to the Sun. When looking at Earth from the Sun, only one half of the Earth can be seen. Thus to make an appropriate estimate of the average amount of solar energy over the entire surface area of the Earth the value for I_ must be divided by 2.
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Solar Power Generation Technologies
As already outlined, there are two ways of turning the energy contained in sunlight into electricity. The first, called solar thermal power generation, involves using the sun simply as a source of heat. This heat is captured, concentrated, and used to drive a heat engine. The heat engine may be a conventional steam turbine, in which case the heat will be used to generate steam, but it could also be a closed-cycle turbine system using an organic thermodynamic fluid, a gas turbine, or a Sterling engine.
The second way of capturing solar energy and converting it into electricity involves use of the photovoltaic or solar cell. The solar cell is a solid-state device like a transistor or microchip. It uses the physical characteristics of a semiconductor such as silicon to turn the sunlight directly into electricity. The simplicity and durability of the solar cell makes it an extremely attractive method of generating electrical power.
It Reduces Energy Bills
Solar energy help reduces energy bills by helping you avoid or minimize dependence on the costly power from the grid.
Individuals who do not own a solar power system but are supplied with electricity generated by solar plants also benefit from reduced energy costs. How?
The cost of production is usually small compared to when traditional sources of energy are used. Thus, the price per unit of power supplied to the consumer also tend to reduce.
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Speeding Up Solar Energy
The accelerated deployment of solar technologies is at the core of the EU Solar Energy Strategy, published in May 2022 as part of the REPowerEU plan. It outlines several initiatives to unlock the solar generation potential of rooftops , address the skills gap in the solar energy sector and scale up PV manufacturing in the EU . Through these initiatives, the strategy aims to bring online over 320 GW of solar photovoltaic by 2025 and almost 600 GW by 2030. These frontloaded additional capacities can displace the consumption of 9 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually by 2027.
To tackle the bottlenecks that slow down renewable projects, the Commission published alongside the REPowerEU plan a Recommendation on fast permitting for renewable energy projects and introduced a legislative proposal on permitting to speed up permit-granting procedures for renewable projects and facilitate power purchase agreements.
Investments and attractive financing conditions support the development of solar PV manufacturing capacities in the UE. Under REPowerEU, additional investments in solar PV could amount to 26 billion between now and 2027. Other funding instruments contributing to the deployment of solar technologies in the EU are the Recovery and Resilience Facility, InvestEU and the Innovation Fund.
A Brief History Of Solar Power
In 1954, Bell Labs developed the first silicon . Although solar energy had previously been captured and converted into usable energy through various methods, only after 1954 did solar power begin to become a viable source of electricity to power devices over extended periods of time. The first solar cells converted solar radiation to electricity at an efficiency of 4 percent for reference, many widely available solar panels today can convert sunlight to solar power at above 20 percent efficiency, a number constantly on the rise. Although solar energy adoption was slow at first, a number of state and federal incentives and policies contributed to driving down the cost of solar far enough to become more widely adopted.
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Does Ball Lightning Exist
It is in general described as a luminous sphere, most often the size of a small childs head. It appears usually during thunderstorms, sometimes within a few seconds of lightning but sometimes without apparent connection to a lightning bolt. In some cases, ball lightning appears after a thunderstormor even before it.
What Are Solar Farms
Solar farms, also known as solar parks or solar fields, are large areas of land containing interconnected solar panels positioned together over many acres, to harvest large amounts of solar energy at the same time. Solar farms are designed for large-scale solar energy generation that feed directly into the grid, as opposed to individual solar panels that usually power a single home or building.
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Who Are The Largest Producers Of Solar Power Worldwide
China is the largest producer of solar powered electricity generation in the world, producing 261,659 GWh in 2020. The US comes in second, producing 119,329 GWh in the same year, followed by Japan, India and Germany.
The current peak solar electricity generation record seen by our Electricity National Control Centre in the UK is 9680MW on 20 April 2020 enough to boil five million kettles!
Ice Climate Change And The Earths Energy Budget
Ice affects the entire earth system in a variety of ways. In the ocean and at the land-sea boundary, ice prevents relatively warm ocean water from evaporating, transferring heat to the colder atmosphere and thereby increasing global air temperature.
Image courtesy of Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library.
Ice also reflects sunlight, thus preventing additional heat from being absorbed by water or land. The ice-covered polar regions are colder than other places on earth, due in part to the high albedo of the snow and ice cover.
As earths climate warms, ice in the form of glaciers and sea ice has decreased dramatically. Data generated from satellites that monitor the formation of polar sea ice indicate that both coverage and thickness have decreased over the past three decades. Recent studies show that the worlds highest glaciers are receding at an average rate of 10 to 15 meters per year. A study released in June 2008 indicates that Arctic sea ice extent shrank to a record low in the summer of 2007.
The decreasing extent of ice in the polar regions is part of a positive feedback loop that can accelerate climate change. Warmer temperatures melt snow and ice, which decreases earths albedo, causing further warming and more melting.
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This Is How The Sun Is Captured And Stored
It takes approximately eight minutes for a photon to travel the 93,000,000 miles from the sun to our earth.
The photons are sent directly to earth without any conditions. Exposed to heat and light the semiconductors materials on the surface of the world are very grateful and conduct positive vibrations as a result of this exposure. Electrons are excited enough to conduct the electricity. This electricity is then captured in the storage rooms we usually know as batteries.
And the party under the bright sun can start!
This is not far from the truth, but the functionality of a solar panel deserves a little bit more serious scrutiny: If you look closely on the surface of a solar panel, you will notice the presence of smaller cells. These are called a solar cell or a photovoltaic cell. The PV cells convert sunlight energy into electricity.
The photovoltaic cells have two thin layers of silicone. Over 90 percent of the PVs produced today are silicone based. Silicone is a semiconducting material and captures the photons. It converts the sunlights photons into electrons.The cells are electrical devices. They are able to convert the energy of light directly into electricity.
This conversion process produces no harmful waste or emissions to the environment, making it a clean, green and effective alternative for generations to come.
Selecting A Solar Energy Designer/installer
As demand for solar energy continues to rise, so will contractors willing to meet that demand. As with any business, evaluation of contractors is important when investing in clean energy technologies. Because solar arrays can produce large quantities of electricity, only qualified professionals should install PV systems.
Obtain several quotes prior to selecting a contractor. Inquire about what is included in the quoted price. Some contractors will include related electrical work performed by a licensed electrician, others may not. Work completed downstream of the inverter must be performed by a licensed electrician to insure compliance with National Electrical Code and local building codes.
Finally, check with your solar professional about whether they will complete required paperwork for cost-sharing from utility companies or if this is the responsibility of the customer. Typically the utility-based incentives will be paid after the installation is complete and the net meter is installed. Check with your contractor about whether they will finance the utility payment and other payment schedule details.
Ask for references and any certifications they may have. You will be investing several thousand dollars into equipment and labor. Solar professionals should be able to provide numerous references and details about their experience and training. They may also be members of local business groups, chambers of commerce, etc.
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How Exactly Is Electricity From Solar Energy Produced
Solar panels are usually made from silicon installed in a metal panel frame with a glass casing. When photons, or particles of light, hit the thin layer of silicon on the top of a solar panel, they knock electrons off the silicon atoms.
This PV charge creates an electric current , which is captured by the wiring in solar panels. This DC electricity is then converted to alternating current by an inverter. AC is the type of electrical current used when you plug appliances into normal wall sockets.
The Facts Behind This Amazing Statistic
The Sun generates energy by nuclear reactions which occur at its dense hot core .It produces a massive 382.8 trillion trillion watts of electromagnetic radiation mostly in the form of visible light, infrared and ultraviolet. As you get further from the Sun, the intensity, which is power per unit area falls as the square of the distance
The solar constantis the average intensity of the Suns radiation at a distance of 1 astronomical unit . It has a value of 1,361 watts per square metre . In fact, the output of the Sun is variable and fluctuates by 0.1% around this value.
The total energy hitting the Earth in one hour is
solar constant x surface area of Earth-sized disc
1 361 W/m2 x 1.2748 x 1014 m2 = 1.73 x 1017 watt-hours.
This is often expressed as 173,000 terawatt hours , where 1 terawatt is 1 trillion watts
The total energy consumed by humanity in 2017 is slightly less than this at 160,000 TWh . This figure includes not just energy used to generate electricity, but also energy used:
- directly for heating ,
- energy used in industrial processes.
The total amount of electricity consumed in 2017 was approximately 22,000 TWh.
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What Is Solar Energy
Solar energy is the radiation from the Sun capable of producing heat, causing chemical reactions, or generating electricity. The total amount of solar energy received on Earth is vastly more than the world’s current and anticipated energy requirements. If suitably harnessed, solar energy has the potential to satisfy all future energy needs.
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Pioneering Hungarian-American physicist Maria Telkes, an early champion of the possibilities of solar energy, is being remembered on the 122nd anniversary of her birth and the 70th anniversary of her winning the inaugural Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award on 12 December 1952.
Dr Telkes was born in Budapest, Hungary, on this date in 1900 and studied physical chemistry at the citys Eotvos Lorand University from 1920, earning her doctorate in 1924.
After graduating, she emigrated to the US where she had a relative based at the Hungarian consul in Cleveland, Ohio, and took a sequence of research roles, initially working as a biophysicist investigating brain waves at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation where she co-wrote the book Phenomenon of Life with her mentor, George Washington Crile and then for Westinghouse studying the conversion of heat into electricity.
Granted American citizenship in 1937, she then took a job with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying solar energy in 1939.
After the US entered the Second World War following the bombing of Pearl Harbour, Washington appointed Telkes as a civilian advisor to the Office of Scientific Research and Development, in which role she developed a solar-powered desalination machine, designed to provide soldiers and civilians with clean drinking water distilled from seawater in hostile and arid environments, not least the Pacific.
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Eliminate The Middle Man
Some electricity, though, is made using clean sources of energy like wind and sunlight. We need to be making a lot more electricity this way.
Many people are now putting solar electric systems on their houses. Solar panels covered with solar cells, sort of like little glass wafers, are installed on the roof. When sunlight strikes them, they turn some of it into electricity, which is fed through wires into the homes electrical circuits.
When sunlight hits the solar panel, the energy knocks loose some electrons from the atoms in the material. The electrons flow into the circuits of the house.
Solar panels over only part of the roof can supply most of the electricity to run a house.
Volunteers in Oakland, California, help to install solar panels on homes.
Solar panels covering even a small area on the roof can supply a good part of the electricity to run the refrigerator, lights, heating, TV, and other energy-hungry devices in the house. Making electricity from sunlight does not produce carbon dioxide and does not add to global warming. And after the solar panels are produced, paid for, and installed, the electricity is free!
In California, people are volunteering to help install solar panels on the homes of those who otherwise could not afford to buy them. The program is called Single-family Affordable Solar Homes, or SASH. The organization that sponsors the SASH program is called GRID Alternatives.
