People have used solar energy for billions of years with some people doing it even without their knowledge.  One of the first ingenious uses of energy from the sun was back in the 17th century when explorers harnessed energy from the sun using collection boxes and used the heat to cook food.

Solar power mainly involves collecting light and heat from the sun rays and using it both in homes and in offices for very many uses.  According to studies, a very tiny portion of the heat from the sun is actually being converted into energy.  This has been attributed to the fact that some people do not have the technology required to fully collect energy while other people, especially in developed countries, do not feel the need to collect energy from the sun when they have other sources of power.

When harnessing energy from the sun, people use heat engines as well as photovoltaic devices.  The way these technologies collect and convert the energy enables people know if they are passive or active technologies.  Photovoltaic devices or cells from the sun are directly harnessed from the sun to form electricity that can be used for lighting and powering tools such as calculators and watches.  Devices manufactured for collecting sun energy as well as photovoltaic devices are classified into active technologies while designs and building materials that make it easier for inhabitants to convert heat and light into energy are classified into passive technologies for harnessing energy from the sun.

These materials may include those that disperse light in certain ways and also technologies that make it possible for light to fill a certain space in a room or office.  There are many ways that people all over the world use solar energy.  The most common application of solar energy is lighting.Incorporating skylights and windows when building reduces the amount of artificial lighting required in that building.  Using solar water heaters or other types of heaters to warm up rooms or heat water is another common application of solar energy.People also use solar water heaters to heat up swimming pools.  Active solar harnessing technologies include the use of solar panels to convert heat from the sun into electricity.However, the use of solar energy is slowed down by the fact that the rays from the sun only reach the earth at certain times of the year and is based on the location, season and weather.  This means that people have to collect the all the energy that they require in the period when the sun rays reach the earth.

1. Solar energy takes 8 minutes 17 seconds to travel from the sun’s surface to earth.
2. Solar energy will run out in 5 billion years as the sun will run out of fuel.
3. A Swiss scientist, Horace de Saussure invented the world’s first solar energy collector, or ‘hot box’ in 1767.
4. In the 1830s, British astronomer – John Herschel used a solar energy collector box to cook food during an expedition to Africa (talk about innovation)
5. Do you know that Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his experiments with solar energy and photovoltaics.
6. The amount of sunlight that fall on the earth every minute is enough to meet the world’s energy demands for an entire year.
7. If we could only covered a small fraction of the Sahara desert with photovoltaic cells, we could generate all the world’s electricity requirements.
8. All TV and communications satellites are powered by solar energy using the photovoltaic cells.