Catch the power of the sun

There are many everyday ways that people use solar energy to power their lives.

Sun shining through your window is helping to warm the room, your watch or calculator might be powered by a small solar cell, hot water in the bathroom might be solar heated and some electricity could come from solar power.

Solar energy is used in three main ways:

• Passive solar uses the sun for light and heat. This includes;
  • smart houses that use sunlight to warm rooms in winter.
  • drying clothes.
  • sun dried foods such as prunes, apricots and sultanas.
• Thermal solar collects the heat of the sun and transfers it for use later. Solar water heating is a good example. Water passed over solar collectors absorbs the heat from the sun and is stored for later use. Solar generators also use thermal energy. They are powered by rising warm air - the warm air rises in a chimney, turning a mill as it goes and that mill turns a generator.
• Photovoltaic cells are used to make electricity from sunlight. Photovoltaic cells (PV) use a chemical reaction to produce energy.

Sunlight is essential to solar energy – weather, time of year and location all change the amount of sunlight available.