Solar Energy Essay -- Energy Sources, Solar Power

Someday, our energy sources are going to run out. What will we do? What can we do? Our major source of energy now is fossil fuel. If that were to run out, there must be an alternate way to get energy. Because of this problem, there has been a lot of research going on. Through that research, alternate ways to get energy have been developed. They include wind energy, solar energy, nuclear energy, tidal energy and many more. In this paper I will focus on the aspects of solar energy. I will look at the history of solar energy, cover the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy and then finally I will talk about the concept of solar energy (how it works) and ways that solar energy can be used in your everyday life. First let’s look at the history of solar power. It has been more than a century ago that solar power was first looked into. Some people believe that the reason for alternate energy sources came in the 1970’s when there was an energy crisis. But according to history, the first look at alternate energy sources came when a scare of running out of fossil fuel came about. Many different things were looked at, but solar power somehow was the one that was looked at the most seriously. Once solar power was focused on, years later, there were ways that were invented to obtain the radiation from the sun and use it to make things work. However, the development of solar power faded when World War I came along. After the war, energy was in demand and therefore, solar power took a back seat in science. Fossil fuel still remained the main source of energy at that time. Most of the credit for solar energy should go to the man by the name of Auguste Mouchout. Although he was a mathematics instructor, he did qu... ...ren. â€Å"Technologies and Applications.† 10 October 2014. http://www.canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=5&PgId=121 Darvill, Andy. â€Å"Solar Energy.† 10 October 2014. http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/solar.htm The Alternate Energy Institute. â€Å"Solar Energy.† 10 October 2014. http://www.altenergy.org/AEI/6 â€Å"The Future of Solar Energy.† 10 October 2014. http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/solar/future.htm The Solar Cooking Archive. 10 October 2014. http://www.solarcooking.org/ Smith, Charles. â€Å"History of Solar Energy.† 10 October 2014. http://www.solarenergy.com/info_history.html Solar Electric Power Association. â€Å"Solar Power Basics.† 10 October 2014. http://www.solarelectricpower.org/power/what_are_pvs.cfm SunWind Solar Industries. â€Å"Uses of solar energy.† 10 October 2014. http://www.web.net/~sunwind/solar/solar_energy_uses.html