Planet Earth revolves around a gigantic ball of energy, but most of the energy used to power activity on the planet comes from within it. For centuries, fossil fuels have been mined and harnessed from every accessible location.
Fossil fuels are used to power engines, to produce electricity and heat. However, in the 21st century, there is an effort to move away from fossil fuels and toward clean and renewable energy. Trina solar panels are a fine example of technology that strives to harness the power of the sun to help produce energy on earth. Solar, wind and hydroelectric energy are clean, renewable energy sources that have different benefits than fossil fuels.
Why Veer Away From Fossil Fuels, Toward Clean Energy?
While fossil fuels have brought society into the modern age, there is legitimate concern over the effects that they have on the atmosphere. Global climate change has been tracked in earnest for decades and there is a consensus amongst scientists that fossil fuel usage negatively impacts the elements in the atmosphere, particularly by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Fossil fuels are also identified as a nonrenewable energy source, which means that once it’s been used, it cannot be used again. Paired with the knowledge that accessing fossil fuels is increasingly more difficult because they are depleted. Eventually, they will run out. Before that happens, there could potentially be a seamless transition to utilising renewable energy. Wind, water and sunshine are always going to be part of the earth’s makeup and technology exists to harness each. In fact, humankind has been accessing energy from these three commodities for thousands of years.
What Is Solar Energy?
Technologies have been developed to harness this radiation and turn it into energy. Though creating solar panels is not a green process, the process of those panels at work is considered to be green, in that it does not release dangerous elements or chemicals into the atmosphere. It is considered renewable because the sun will continue to provide the earth with more potential energy in a few hours than it could use in a year, into perpetuity.
How Is Solar Energy Harnessed?
The sun’s rays can be harnessed in different ways. Photovoltaic cells, also known as solar panels, soak up the sunlight and turn it into electricity. Solar arrays are used on buildings and in fields; neighbourhoods are seeing increasing numbers of solar arrays on housetops. Commonly, energy companies are setting up systems by which homeowners can sell that energy back to the grid, and thus reducing their bills. Technology also exists for the panels to put the energy into a battery array. If the power company’s efforts are disrupted, the stored energy could power the home.
Solar thermal technology involves turning the sun’s heat into steam or water. Rather than having power plants that run on coal, which is constantly releasing negative elements into the atmosphere, solar thermal power plants could produce that same volume of electricity, without the negative side effects.
Passive energy is an energy source that has been harnessed since Roman times, when people would position the attitude of their windows to best capture the sun’s rays for heating, or avoid it for cooling. People still utilise this ingenious technique, designing buildings to capture the same heat all these years later.
Humans are not going to stop needed energy sources any time soon, but the environmental issues associated with energy consumption could come to a head sooner rather than later. Solar energy is a way to provide much-needed clean, renewable power, energy and electricity to the loads of systems on the planet that require it. Technology will continue to improve and become more effective at lower costs. At the same time, fossil fuels will continue to dwindle and become more expensive. The trend seems to be as clear as a sunny sky; solar energy is the future.
