Solar energy is a natural renewable resource that has a huge potential because it can easily supply energy for the whole Earth and will never run out. The sun produces a huge amount of energy in light and heat form. It can be used by humans in several ways, for example in solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, molten salt power plants and concentrator solar power technologies. Solar energy can either be used directly or indirectly by first turning it into electricity.
Potential
The amount of solar energy that is absorbed by the atmosphere is huge, about 3,850,000 exajoules (1 exajoule = 1018 joules) per year. The amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s crust differs very much. It is affected by place, time, weather, etc. During night time not much sunlight reaches Earth and cloud cover also blocks most sunlight.
Capturing Sunlight
There are two types of ways to capture sunlight. The first one is active, in which sunlight is converted into a useful form of energy that can be distributed easily. The most popular way of conversion is using solar
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Concentrator solar power concentrates light energy from the sun on a smaller surface to boil a liquid. The steam then spins turbines to generate electricity. This is might be cheaper than using photovoltaics because you don’t need to store the energy for overnight. The thermal storage allows for electricity to be generated for up to 24 hours. There are many types of technologies to do this, for example parabolic trough, compact linear Fresnel reflectors, Stirling solar dish and solar power tower. Floatovoltaics are simply photovoltaics that float on the surface of water, for example in canals, lakes, water reservoirs and ponds. This allows for the photovoltaics to collect energy while not taking valuable land, reducing water evaporation and working more efficiently because the photovoltaics are being cooled down by the