Millions of years ago plants flourished. They took the Sun's energy and converted it into constituents that made up the plant. As part of this process oxygen was produced and animal life was able to join in and animals ate the plants. Other larger animals ate the littler plant eaters and all these living things died and their remains at last ended up as oil and other carbon energy resources underneath the earth.
Man comes along and finds that these things can be employed for fuel to cook food and as machines were invented these were used to run the industries of this planet. Mankind has managed to use the great majority of these stored power sources that took millions of years to make in less than 2 hundred years. So while these types of energy are more or less replenish-able it will take millions of years for them to produce the next batch.
There's a bit of debate as to how long our fossil fuel supply will last but their source is still storing more energy in plants daily so the pipe line is still working it's just a bit slow. Nevertheless while these indirect sorts of solar power are slow, the Sun delivers more energy to earth in 60 minutes than the whole planet will use this year.
So how will we use this? Well the easiest way is just to utilize the sun's rays to heat something directly, for example water. By running the water through black pipes we will increase the usefulness of this. There are solar hot water heaters that do nothing less than this.
An alternative way this is done is by employing solar energy panels. This uses the energy of the Sun to generate an electric current. There is a massive amount of controversy over the great amount of area these panels cover to do this in adequate volume. This is due to the fact that less than one fifth of the energy received from the Sun is really converted into electrical energy.
The pros of solar energy are numerous as they are non polluting, quiet, nearly upkeep free, and lots of other factors. They can be used to power anything that can be powered by an electric current, or by direct heating. By utilizing a device called a power inverter you can also power your household appliances.
Outdoor solar lighting is another highly regarded use of solar energy, and while the cost of the lights is a bit more, the money saved in installation makes these solar lights much less costly than standard lighting methods. Solar post light, solar garden lights, solar yard lights, solar trail lights and many other out of doors solar lighting types cover nearly any category of external illumination conceivable.
Another popular use of solar electricity is to heat water for your pool or to be used in your house. This is way more efficient than solar energy panels and much easier to install.
As the technology advances and solar energy panels become more efficient and cheaper to produce, it's possible that solar electricity will turn into a major part of our future. Only the passing of time can tell.
