A brief history and presentation about using solar energy as a renewable energy source.

1. Solar Energy: A Renewable Energy Source
By Shelly Shinevar

2. Trivia
 The Sun is 93 million miles away from the
Earth. How many minutes does it take for
light to travel this distance?
 The Sun will exhaust its supply of hydrogen
in about __ billion years, at which time it will
collapse under it’s own weight and become
very hot. Eventually, it will become big
enough to swallow the orbits of Venus & the
Earth.

3. More trivia:
Solar energy alone could meet
the world’s energy supply
needs simply by covering as
little as ___% of the world’s
deserts with photovoltaics.

4. Solar energy has been harnessed since
ancient times:
 The Greeks and the Chinese first began to
build buildings facing the sun for light and
heat.
 This is an example of passive solar
techniques.

5. Passive Solar Technology
 Involves selecting materials capable of
absorbing sunlight and heat such as wood,
earth, concrete or asphalt or
 Designing spaces to circulate air or to face
the sun.

6. A traditional Chinese house made of mudbrick. The homes
usually faced south to keep out the cold north wind.

7. An ancient Greek peasant hut, built of mud and embedding sticks and
straws, would face the entrance towards the sun to utilize the heat.

8. Active solar technologies involve using
photovoltaic panels, pumps and fans to
convert sunlight into useful applications.

9. The further away you get from the
equator, the less sunlight is available.
The ability to store solar energy is very important.

10. Various techniques and methods involved in using
solar energy:
 Greenhouses
 Daylighting systems
 Solar hot water systems
 Solar cookers
 Photovoltaics
 Concentrating solar power (CSP)
 Solar furnaces
 Solar ponds
 Solar cars and boats
 Solar thermoelectric plants and devices

11. More recent inventions make utilizing
solar energy more energy efficient:
 For flat commercial roofs, a new line of “stick-
on” solar modules have been developed.
 MIT chemical engineers have developed
carbon nanotubes capable of concentrating
solar energy up to 100 times more than a
photovoltaic cell.

12. The crown heralding the largest operational PV
plant in North America now belongs to the 100
megawatts on-line of the 290-megawatt Agua
Caliente solar project in Yuma County, Arizona.
Construction is still in progress, with completion
expected in 2014.

13. Answers to Trivia

14. The End
The End