Renewable Energy - Solar Energy
Solar Energy | Wind Energy | Geothermal Energy | Water Power | Biomass
Solar energy - Solar Power - Solar Panels
The solar panels (photovoltaic arrays) on this small yacht at sea can charge the 12 V batteries at up to 9 amperes in full, direct sunlight.
Since most renewable energy is ultimately "solar energy" this term is slightly confusing and used in two different ways: firstly as a synonym for "renewable energies" as a whole and secondly for the energy that is directly collected from sunlight. In this section it is used in the latter category. Solar power can be used to:
generate electricity using solar cells
generate electricity using thermal power plants
generate electricity using solar towers
heat buildings, directly
heat buildings, through heat pumps
heat foodstuffs, through solar ovens.
Drawbacks
Obviously the sun does not provide constant energy to any spot on the Earth, so its use is limited. Solar cells are often used to power batteries, as most other applications would require a secondary energy source, to cope with outages.
Solar power is renewable.
From Wikipedia.