Here is a selection of fascinating solar power fun facts. People have used the sun as a heat source for thousands 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 power.
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 around the earth 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 given to Albert Einstein for experiments with solar power and photovoltaics.
Way back in 1955 The American Solar Energy Society held its first conference in Phoenix and attracted the first Russian scientist to the US following the second World War. There is film footage showing early photovoltaics which was developed 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 boat 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 first World Solar Challenge took place in 1987. This is the solar-powered motor competition covering 3021 km through the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide.
Did you know that it is possible to increase any solar panel output by 75% simply by positioning a mirror which is approximately twice the size of the panel on the ground in front of the panel?
PV cells do not require direct sunlight to work - you can still generate some electric power on a gloomy day.
Solar electricity is a green, renewable energy and does not release any damaging carbon dioxide or other pollutants. A typical home PV system can help save around 1200kg of CO2 per year which is around 30 tonnes spanning a lifetime.
It is possible to store the electricity that your solar power system generates in batteries for a cloudy day.
You may sell off any extra electricity that you produce using your solar power back to the power company and make a bit of money.
It takes only about eight minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to earth.
About 30% of the radiation that we receive from the sun in the upper atmosphere is reflected back into space. The rest is absorbed by the clouds, oceans and also land masses here on Earth. Nevertheless even in these conditions, the energy that our planet receives from just one hour of sun exposure is equal to the amount of energy that human beings use in an entire year.
Large scale solar projects that are being constructed world wide show that sun powered clean energy technology are both achievable and lucrative. Solar power plants generate Megawatts (MW) with one MW being sufficient power to supply 1000 homes. One of the largest solar energy projects that the world has ever seen is the "Desertec" plan to use the uninhabitable North African desert for a power grid of concentrated thermal electrical power stations that could supply Europe with all of its power needs by the year 2050. So much progress in such a brief period of time let us see where solar electricity will go from here.
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