Sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, are all naturally replenished and don’t dwindle with time and fall under renewable energy sources.

Sun is a great mass of energy in itself and has been showering its vigor since billions of years. Because of its immense power Sun has come into being the most powerful source of energy in terms of light and heat.

Around 1830s, a British Astronomer John Herschel used a solar driven cooker to make food in Africa. Of course, nowadays solar energy’s uses are beyond any comparison. Solar Energy can be a medium of energy provider through various techniques. A few of them are:

For heating water in houses, swimming pools or in some cases in buildings too
For heating spaces like inside the Greenhouse, homes, buildings, etc
For cooking food too it is extensively used.

Solar energy also has the potential to work as a great electricity provider. The Photovoltaic cells or in simple terms, Solar cells possess the power to convert sunlight directly into electricity and lead to running of electricity driven equipments. This sort of means is used in places that is far from any power grid and is devoid of electricity. Sunlight is composed of photons, or particles of solar energy. These photons contain a great amount of energy analogous to diverse wavelengths of the solar band. When photons hit a solar cell, they are returned or pass through, or be absorbed. Simply the absorbed photons supply energy to produce electricity. When sufficient sunlight is absorbed by the substance; to be precise, a semiconductor, electrons are removed from the material's atoms. Particular management of the material exterior during mechanizing makes the front surface of the cell more accessible to free electrons, so the electrons as expected drift to the surface.

When the electrons go away from their position, gap is created. When a lot of electrons, all carrying a negative charge, move in the direction of the surface of the cell, the consequential unevenness of charge between the cell's front and back surfaces forms a voltage as the negative and positive terminals of a battery. When the two surfaces are linked to an external load, electricity flows.

Another attribute of solar energy that produce electricity indirectly are Solar Power Plants. The mechanism of Solar Power Plants is very basic as the heat of the sun is used to warm up water that in turn produces steam that drives a generator. United States is known to have 15 solar driven generators across its area.

Solar energy is open, and its stores are infinite. Using solar energy creates no air or water pollution but does have some roundabout contact with the environment. For instance, developing the solar cells used to alter sunlight into electricity uses silicon and produces some waste products. In addition, huge solar thermal farms can also hurt desert bionetwork if not suitably handled.

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The European Union has committed to reaching and renewable energy consumption of 20% by year 2020. This can be considered quiet of a challenge if we take into consideration the renewable energy consumption level of the EU was only a sad 8.5% in year 2005.

Though a very interesting fact mentioned in the video states that the current level of European production of wind electricity can cover the consumption of electricity of Denmark and Hungary combined. Which makes you dream with a not too far away future of cleaner and sustainable development due to renewable energy sources.



This is an extract from the video producers:

Raising the share of renewable energy from 8.5% to 20% in the overall energy consumption is a necessary contribution to the global fight against climate change and towards better control over our energy dependence. The various uses of renewable energy are examined: electricity through wind and hydraulic energies; electricity or heat through geothermal and solar energies; electricity, heat, and biofuel coming from biomass. The EU is a world leader in the use and deployment of technologies that exploit renewable energy sources, providing over 350.000 jobs and an annual turn-over of € 30 billion.

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