An astronomer named John Hershel used a solar thermal collector box to cook food while an expedition to Africa. Today, people use the suns energy for a bunch of reasons.

“A solar power tower, or a central receiver, generates electricity from sunlight by focusing by focusing concentrated solar energy on a tower mounted heat receiver. This system uses hundreds of thousands sunlight tracking mirrors called heliostats to reflect and concentrate the suns energy on to a central receiver tower. The energy can be concentrated as much as fifteen 100 times that of the energy coming in from the sun.”

There are 2 ways solar energy can be turned into electricity: solar electric power plants generate electricity by concentrating solar energy to heat a fluid and produce steam that is then used to a power generator.

“Using solar energy doesn’t produce air or water pollution and doesn’t produce green house gases, but using solar energy may have some negative impacts on the environment. For example, there are some toxic materials and chemicals that are used in the manufacturing process of photo valtiac cells, which convert sunlight into electricity some solar thermal systems use potentially hazardous fluids to transfer heat.”

How coal forms: Before dinosaurs lived many giant plants died in swamps. Over millions of years the plants were buried under water and dirt. Heat and pressure turned the dead plants into coal.

As any type of power plant, large solar power plants can affect the environment were they are located. Clearing land for contraction and the placement of the power plant may have long- term impacts on plant and animal life by reducing habitat areas for native plants and animals. Power plants may require water for cleaning solar collectors or concentrators also require water for cooling turbine generators.

Solar thermal power plants use the sun rays to heat fluid to high temperatures. The fluid is then circulated through pipes so that it can transfer it’s heat to water and produce steam. The steam is converted into mechanical energy in a turbine, which powers a generator to produce electricity.

Sunlight is composed of photons or particles of solar energy. These photos contain varying amounts of energy that correspond to the different wavelengths of the solar spectrum.

Our PowerPoint on solar energy! PowerPoint by : Brooke,Layal,Anna,and Eilat