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Important Solar Power Science Fun Facts
Here is a selection of extraordinary solar power fun facts. People have used the sun as a heat resource for hundreds of years. It is only with the progress in technology that have taken place in recent years that have enabled us to finally harness this power.
Families in ancient Greece designed their homes to get the most sunlight during the cold winter months. The ancient Greeks believed that the sun was the god Helios and he drove his chariot around the earth up towards the sky in the morning and in the evening back again.
The discovery of the photovoltaic effect is attributed to the French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839.
In 1921 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Albert Einstein for investigations with solar power and photovoltaics.
Way back in 1955 The American Solar Energy Society conducted its first meeting in Phoenix and attracted the first Russian scientist to the US after the second World War. There is film footage exhibiting early photovoltaics which was specially designed for NASA, solar cookers and solar heating panels.
The first solar flight occurred in 1974 in California by an unmanned plane which was developed by two brothers Roland and Bob Boucher.
In 1975 the first solar boat was crafted in England and in 1996 Kenichi Horie from Japan made the first solar powered crossing of the Pacific Ocean in a catamaran.
The first World Solar Challenge was held in 1987. This is a solar-powered car contest covering 3021 km through the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide.
Did you know it is possible to increase any solar panel output by 75% simply by positioning a mirror that is about twice the size of the panel on the ground in front of the panel?
PV cells do not need direct sunlight to work - you can still produce some electricity on a cloudy day.
Solar electricity is an eco-friendly, renewable energy and does not put out any damaging carbon dioxide or other pollutants. An average home PV system could save about 1200kg of CO2 each year which is about 30 tonnes during a lifetime.
It is possible to store the electricity that your solar power system produces in batteries for a cloudy day.
You may sell any excess electricity you generate using your solar power back to the power company and make a little bit of money.
It takes only about 8 minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to the the earth.
Around 30% of the radiation that we receive from the sun at the upper atmosphere is reflected back up into space. The remainder is absorbed by the clouds, oceans and land masses here on Earth. Yet even in these types of conditions, the energy that our planet receives from just a single hour of sun exposure is equivalent to the amount of energy that humans use within a whole year.
Large scale solar projects which are currently being developed world wide show that sun powered clean energy technology are both achievable and profitable. Solar power plants generate Megawatts (MW) with one MW being enough energy to supply 1000 homes. One of the most significant solar energy projects which the world has ever seen is the "Desertec" plan to use the uninhabitable North African desert for a power grid of concentrated thermal electrical power stations which will supply Europe with just about all of its power needs by the year 2050. So much progress in such a short period of time let us all see exactly where solar electricity will go from here.
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