Solar thermal energy is a technology designed to capture the sun's radiant heat and convert it into thermal energy (heat), differentiating it from photovoltaics, which generate electricity. Systems like parabolic mirrors or flat plate collectors concentrate sunlight onto a specific area, heating a fluid that transfers the energy to a storage unit.
Concentrating Solar Power: Figure modified and annotated from the US Department of Energy: Solar Energy Technologies Office Solar photovoltaics (PV) convert sunlight directly into electricity by taking advantage of special properties of materials called semiconductors.
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun, and can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal electricity. Solar energy is a renewable source of energy that is sustainable and totally inexhaustible, unlike fossil fuels that are finite.
Solar Radiant or light energy is produced in the Sun as a result of nuclear fusion reactions and is transmitted to the earth through space by electromagnetic radiation in quanta or packets of energy called photons.
Solar heating systems take advantage of some basic principles about how solar energy is converted into solar thermal energy and the physical behavior of heat. The first principle you need to understand about solar home heating is how solar energy is captured and converted into heat.
It all starts when solar thermal systems catch the sun's energy using reflective materials. These are often parabolic mirrors or flat plate collectors, engineered to concentrate sunlight onto a specific point or area. This focused sunlight heats a special fluid, usually water mixed with antifreeze, which then carries the energy to a heat exchanger.