Astonishing Solar Power Fun Facts

Here is a selection of fascinating solar power fun facts. People have used the sun as a heat resource for hundreds of years. It is only with the advances in technology that have taken place in recent years that have helped us to fully harness this energy.

Families in ancient Greece built their homes to get the most sunlight throughout the chilly winter months. The ancient Greeks believed that the sun was the god Helios and he drove his chariot round the earth up towards the sky in the morning and in the evening back again.

The invention of the photovoltaic effect is attributed to the French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839.

In 1921 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Albert Einstein for investigations with solar power and photovoltaics.

Way back in 1955 The American Solar Energy Society held its first gathering in Phoenix and attracted the first Russian scientist to the US following the second World War. There is film footage presenting early photovoltaics which was specially designed for NASA, solar cookers and solar heating panels.

The first solar flight occurred in 1974 in California by an unmanned plane which was put together by two brothers Roland and Bob Boucher.

In 1975 the first solar vessel was built in England and in 1996 Kenichi Horie from Japan made the first solar powered crossing on the Pacific Ocean in a catamaran.

The earliest World Solar Challenge was held in 1987. This is the solar-powered motor race covering 3021 km over the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide.

Did you know that it is possible to increase any solar panel productivity by 75% by simply positioning a mirror which is about twice the size of the panel on the surface in front of the panel?

PV cells do not require direct sunlight to work - you may still produce some electric power on a gloomy day.

Solar electricity is a green, sustainable energy and does not release any damaging carbon dioxide or other pollutants. An average home Photovoltaic system can help save around 1200kg of CO2 annually which is around 30 tonnes spanning a lifetime.

It is possible to store the electricity that a solar power system produces in batteries for a cloudy day.

You may sell off any extra electricity you produce using your solar power back to the power company and make a little bit of money.

It takes no more than eight minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to earth.

Approximately 30% of the radiation that we receive from the sun in the upper atmosphere is reflected back up into space. The remainder is absorbed by the clouds, oceans and also land masses here on Earth. Yet even in these types of conditions, the energy that our planet receives from just a single hour of sun exposure is the same as the amount of energy that human beings use in a whole year.

Large scale solar projects that are being constructed world wide show that sun powered clean energy technology are both attainable and also lucrative. Solar power plants generate Megawatts (MW) with one MW being sufficient energy to supply 1000 homes. One of the largest solar energy projects that the world has ever seen is the "Desertec" program to utilize the uninhabitable North African desert for a power grid of concentrated thermal electrical power stations that could supply Europe with all of its energy needs by the year 2050. So much progress in such a brief period of time let us see exactly where solar electricity will go from here.

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