Solar Selectives
With many environmental concerns and changes, we are in the midst of a world-wide movement to protect our eco-system with energy saving technologies, recycling, and the protection of natural resources are all huge topics of discussion within the “green” movement. It will take concentrated efforts and continued education from industrialized nations to develop a global preservation plan if we are to help protect the generations to follow.
A positive development is the amazing technological advancements in the conversion of the sun’s energy into useful forms of clean energy with tremendous benefits both on social and environmental levels. Solar energy can be converted to heat energy (thermal) and is useful for heating spaces, like your home or a building, or for heating water. Solar energy is also converted into electricity in two ways, through solar power plants or through Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. It’s amazing to ponder the advancements that have been made in this field but it remains a far cry from our current dependence upon fossil fuels for energy. In time, perhaps the pendulum will swing towards the utilization of solar energy on a more level playing field and reduce our consumption of waste emitting energy sources. All things may be possible when you consider the power of the sun. Here are some solar facts that you may not be aware of.
The sun is simply a star and it’s smaller than some of the stars you view at night but it’s much closer to earth than many stars. The sun is 93 million miles from earth and is much larger than earth. The earth could fit inside the sun a million times! If we could all of the energy emitted by the sun it would provide enough power for everybody.
It takes about eight minutes for the sun’s rays to reach earth. If you drove 60 mph in a car it would take 176 years to get there. It is estimated that the sun is more than 4 billion years old. In several more billion years scientists believe the sun will have burned all of the hydrogen that’s present then it will expand 100 times its size and burn helium. Ever wonder how hot the sun is? At the core it is about 10 million degrees and around 6,000 degrees on its surface.
With all that mass and intensity it only makes sense that we try to harness what sun provides for us day in and day out.
