harness: to control and use the natural force or power of something
trough: the hollow area between two waves
laud: to praise someone or something
inexhaustible: something that is inexhaustible exists in such large amounts that it can never be finished or used up
versatile: having many different uses
drawback: a disadvantage of a situation, plan, product etc
surge: to suddenly move very quickly in a particular direction
Every hour the sun beams onto Earth more than enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year.
There are three popular ways of changing them to electricity. First, long containers of U-shaped mirrors focus sunlight on a pipe of oil which runs through the middle. The water boiled by the hot oil generates electricity. Second, movable mirrors are used to focus the sun’s rays on a receiver. Molten salt flowing through the receiver is heated and a generator runs. Third, heat-absorbent materials heated during daytime heat a whole house.
Now solar energy is lauded as an unlimited, non pollution, not noisy source that can be used anywhere. But it has some disadvantages. Those are not to work at night without a storage device such as a battery, to depend on weather, to be expensive, and to need many lands. In spite of these drawbacks, solar energy use has surged at about 20 percent a year over the past 15 years, thanks to rapidly falling prices and gains in efficiency. With tax incentives, solar electricity can often pay for itself in five to ten years.
Thank you for sharing. I think making use of the sun beams onto the Earth is efficient. But as you said, there are some disavantages. Especially I think weather is the best problem. When rainy day lasts for more than two days, a home that uses solay energy will be in trouble at night. So I think solar energy is usually efficient as well as sometimes useless.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article. Solar energy is good for the environment, but it also depends on the region. I think there are many solutions, not just one, and it depends on which part of the world is being considered. Thank you for sharing this informative article!
ReplyDelete-Jamie from the Front Office
Thank you for the very informative posting. The earthquake and the nuclear power plant incidents in Japan gave us an opportunity to rethink our power sources, I think. Since Hawaii still has lots of natural resources, it would be a great place for scientists to invent a new method to generate power!
ReplyDeleteChisato from the office