Renewable sun energy

The amount of sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year. Solar energy has amazing potential to power our daily lives thanks to constantly-improving technologies.

CJ Copenhagen Solar energy systems come in many shapes and sizes.

There are two main types of solar energy technologies—photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP). PV is utilized in panels. When the sun shines onto a solar panel, photons from the sunlight are absorbed by the cells in the panel, which creates an electric field across the layers and causes electricity to flow.

The second technology is concentrating solar power, or CSP. It is used primarily in very large power plants. This technology uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect solar energy and convert it to heat, which can then be used to produce electricity.