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Solar Power

Today we use power of the sun or solar power to heat buildings and water. In some places people still use it for cooking and disinfecting. But more important we also use solar power to make electricity. With electricity we can cook, heat or make drinking water from seawater... Currently solar power accounts for only a small percentage of energy used in the world. But its catching on, in 2005, $7.5 billion was spent worldwide on solar power. That amount was 40% higher then and year before. Solar power works best in parts of the world with hot and sunny climate, that’s why most of the new solar power plants are being constructed in Australia, Spain, US and Middle East. But that doesn’t stop other countries around the globe in taking advantage of solar power for example Germany doesn’t always have sunny weather. But they make use of what sunlight it has. They have built the world’s largest solar power plant, called »Gut Erlasse Solar Park« in Arnstein. The solar panels in the Gut Erlasse Solar Park power plant make 12 megawatts of electricity enough to power a town with nine thousand people. But other nations aren't staying behind in this race and are building much bigger solar power plants. A solar power plant in Australia (Victoria) will produce 154 megawatts when it’s completed. Israel is also planning a 100megawatt solar power plant in its Negev Desert which will later be expanded to 500megawatts which will cover 5% of their power need.

Solar power for households

Solar panels can be fitted on a roof of any kind of structure. People are more and more adding solar panels to their homes, to save money on energy bills or to just me more eco friendly and use clean renewable energy. Fitting solar panels to homes in the past was very expensive but lately due to all the advances in the solar power field solar panels are cheaper then ever before. In some places, new homes are being built with solar panels already installed. And with constant advances in the field new solar panels use collected energy to heat and light the houses or sell surplus of energy back into the power grid. Many modern cities are taking advantage of solar power to light up their streets, signs or walkways.

Other uses for solar power

A lot of remote towns and villages have no access to electricity and solar power can help them most of all. Solar power plant can clean their water, help them prepare or refrigerate food, power their hospitals and keep them warm in harsh winters.

Ever since the start of space exploration solar power has been present in space vehicles and spacecrafts traveling near the Sun. Space vehicles sent to explore Mars also take advantage of sun and use solar power from solar panels to travel the surface of the Mars. There have also been rumors that some countries plan to build solar power plants in space, satellites circling the Earth or the Sun would collect solar energy and send it back to receivers on Earth. Then solar energy would be converted by solar inverters to electricity. A Lunar Solar Power or LSP system could provide a power bridge between Earth and Moon and then sets of lunar solar panels would beam energy to receivers on Earth.