Solar Power

In one hour as much energy from the sun reaches the earth as it takes the global population to use in one year.

There are several basic ways of harnessing this energy:

• Design buildings to make the best use of available sun light for both heating and lighting.

• Use collectors consisting of blackened absorber plates with embedded tubes carrying water or oil that transport the heat.

• Use sunlight on materials such as silicon to generate electricity.

Solar power is clean, cost effective and creates no noise - but requires a reliable source of sunlight.

Large scale solar thermal electric systems operate in the Middle East and California and use mirrors to focus sunlight and generate very high temperatures. Large areas of land are needed for these installations.