Solar power is arguably one of the best practices for renewable energy. But for many, solar energy is still a mystery. Here are five things you probably didn’t know about solar power.
Solar energy is the most abundant energy resources because of the 173,000 terawatts of solar energy that is constantly hitting the Earth. This is a huge amount of energy, considering one terawatt is equal to one trillion watts. In fact, the amount of energy the sun constantly provides is more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy uses.
There are many spacecraft that utilize solar power technologies. The space industry was an early adopter of solar technologies, and has installed them into their spacecrafts to generate power. The first Earth satellite powered by solar power, called the Vanguard 1, is currently the oldest satellite in orbit, and has traveled over 6 billion miles.
The world’s largest solar power plant is in the United States. The plan, known as the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, is located in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. This plant was opened in February of 2015, and produces enough electricity to power more than 140,000 California homes.
There are two main types of solar panels: monocrystalline and polycrystalline. Monocrystalline panels are dark black, and each cell has missing corners. Each cell is cut from one uniform piece of crystal. Polycrystalline panels are a dark blue color, and the cells are a square shape. These cells are made from a mix of different types of crystals, and generally are more efficient than their monocrystalline counterpart.
Self-sustaining energy generating buildings that use the different types of solar panels can also get property tax incentives, and even sales tax incentives. These incentives can make reduce the price of solar energy investments, and homeowners typically see a full return on their investment within 5-10 years.
