What Is Solar Energy?

Sun is the source of all energies in this planet earth. This energy which is endowed by the sun is known as solar energy. This energy sparks off weather, climate and virtually all life on earth.
The most of the available flow of renewable energy comes from the heat and light. Also, solar based resources like those of wind and wave power, biomass and hydroelectricity also are the causes for renewable energy.
The energy of the sun is harnessed by the solar energy technologies for practical ends. Ever since the Greeks, Native Americans and Chinese were into being, the solar technologies were made use of.
It helped them in warming their buildings by orienting them towards the sun. Heating, electricity, lighting and even flight are some of the gifts endowed by modern solar technologies. Solar power is made use synonymously with solar energy.
It refers to the conversion of sunlight into electricity. With the help of photovoltaic effect, this is made possible.
Else, it can be done by heating a transfer fluid to generate steam to function the generator. Solar photovoltaic generate 0.04% of the world’s total energy usage in 2004. Our earth gets 174 peta watts of incoming solar radiation that is also known as insolation at the upper atmosphere.
Six percent of the insolation is reflected and 16 percent is taken in or absorbed. Clouds, dust and pollutants are such average atmospheric conditions that further diminish insolation traveling through the atmosphere by 20 percent due to reflection and 3 percent via absorption.
These conditions diminish the quantity of energy reaching the surface of the earth.
Also, they diffuse approximately twenty percent of the incoming light and filter portions of its spectrum. Approximately half of the insolation after going through the atmosphere is in the visible electromagnetic spectrum with the other half mostly in the infrared spectrum.
With the help of atmospheric convection, the absorption of solar energy affects the water cycle and winds. They get affected also because of the evaporation and condensation of water vapor. Sunlight is taken in by the oceans, plants and land masses after reaching the surfaces.
The thermohaline cycle is driven by the energy captured in the oceans.
Thus, solar energy is the driving force behind the ocean currents like those of thermohaline cycle and wind driven currents such as Gulf Stream. Besides, all the food we eat, wood we build with, and fossil fuels we make use are products of photosynthesis. For further information, you can check websites pertinent to solar energy.