Vital Facts You Need to Know about Solar Energy and Its Use

Needless to say, we all know the reduction of pollution is one of the most prominent advantages of solar energy. But the truth is that solar energy is beneficial for not just protecting the environment but also much more than that. You don’t need to be an expert in ecology to know about the severity of our environment and how it’s affecting our world.

Needless to say, we are all aware that reduction of pollution is one of the most prominent advantages of solar energy. But the truth is that solar energy is beneficial for not just protecting the environment but also much more than that. You don’t need to be an expert in ecology to know about the severity of our environment and how it’s affecting our world.

Some of the facts related to solar energy which you might not know are:-

• Use of solar energy is not a new concept by any means; several ancient civilizations have also used it before.
• One of the first modern thinkers to conceive the idea of using solar energy for water heating was Leonardo Da Vinci.
• An inventor named Edmond Becquerel first acquired a patent in 1894 to build the world’s 1st solar powered water heater.
• Bell Laboratories first designed the first solar photovoltaic cell in 1954.
• Frank Shuman built the world’s first thermal power station in 1913. The station was situated in Egypt, and it pumped nearly 6000 gallons of water each minute through solar energy.
• All solar products are predominantly of two types – active and passive. Active devices use photovoltaic cells while passive ones are thermal in nature.
• Solar devices which are thermal based use molten salts to hold the solar energy at very high temperature.
• Several surveys have conveyed that by the year 2060, 33% of the world’s power generation will be done by solar energy using technologies like solar panels.
• For per watt solar energy installed, India is ranked 1st.
• Rajasthan is considered as the topmost state in India using the highest quantity of solar energy.

Stark contrast between conventional energy and solar energy

Every year the earth receives 3.85 million exajoules of solar energy which is in stark contrast to the 56.74 exajoules of usage of conventional electricity. So it’s quite evident that within just a few hours, more energy is generated from the sun than what conventional resources generated in a whole year. Compared to fossil fuels, solar energy doesn’t produce harmful carbon dioxide in the environment. Probably one of the best things about solar energy is that they can be utilized by everyone.

Wondering what solar power is capable of?

Well, to put things into perspective, we consume nearly 467 exajoules of energy through conventional sources like coal, petroleum, gasoline along with green sources like wind and water. If you think it through, if we could just harness 10% of the sun’s energy, we can replace all the conventional sources and save on fossil fuels. So, it’s extremely evident how beneficial solar energy is to the environment. Many countries have embraced this fact, and one of the biggest examples is India. Such is the demand for this alternate energy that the solar panel price in India has decreased a lot over the years making it possible for people from any background to use it.