Responsible energy from the sun

Climate change is wreaking havoc all over the globe. This summer, news of heat-related deaths is alarming citizens in many countries. Japan is experiencing the hottest temperatures since meteorological records have been kept and many deaths have resulted from the stifling heat. Similar reports have come in from Canada, Europe and other places in the northern hemisphere. Does this mean we are doomed to gradually hotter temperatures in perpetuity? Perhaps not if solar energy has anything to say about it. Solar power is energy derived directly from the sun. This energy, in the form of heat and light, supports all life on earth, controls the earth's climate and is mostly responsible for the class of resources collectively known as renewable energy. 

The applications for solar power are many and date back thousands of years

The Greeks, Native Americans, Chinese, and others heated their buildings by orienting them toward the sun. In Europe, farmers used elaborate field orientation and thermal mass to boost crop production during the Little Ice Age. Modern solar technologies continue to use the sun to provide water heating and electric power for millions of utility consumers. Solar power describes technologies that convert sunlight into electricity and in some cases thermal or mechanical power.

The long history of solar energy

In 1866, the French engineer Auguste Mouchout powered a steam engine with the power of the sun. This is the first recorded example of a solar-powered mechanical device. Over the next five decades, inventors such as John Ericsson, Charles Tellier, and Frank Shuman invented solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration, and locomotion. The modern age of solar power arrived in 1954 when scientists at Bell Laboratories invented a photovoltaic cell capable of effectively converting light into electricity. This breakthrough marked a fundamental change in how power is generated. Since that time, solar cell efficiencies have improved from 6% to 15% with experimental cells reaching efficiencies over 40%.

Direct solar energy

Direct solar generally refers to technologies that involve a single conversion of sunlight which results in a usable form of energy. Indirect solar generally refers to technologies that involve multiple transformations of sunlight which result in a usable form of power.
A solar cell is a gadget that converts light into electricity using the photovoltaic effect. Until recently, their use has been limited because of expensive manufacturing costs. One cost-effective use has been in very low-power devices that require little juice, such as calculators with LCDs and similarly tiny gadgets. Another use has been in remote applications such as roadside emergency telephones, remote sensing, cathodic protection of pipelines, and limited "off grid" home power applications. 

Solar power is here to stay, and the sooner you explore how much you can save, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits of residential solar power. Go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. It tells you how much solar power you need, and how much you can save.

Please visit our solar blog to find out more about the benefits of going solar.