Solar energy undoubtedly represents the future of humanity. Due to the fact that it is green energy, which has a low price, it is being talked about at all levels, from powering households and industries to the ambition to one day fill more than half of all the needs of the national grids. Precisely because of its attractiveness, we decided to present you 7 interesting facts related to the use of solar energy.
1) Discovered 185 years ago - The photovoltaic effect of producing energy from sunlight Alexandre Edmond Becquerel back discovered in 1839.
2) Reserves for 5 billion years - Scientists believe that up to now, the Sun has consumed about half of the hydrogen from its core and that it contains enough reserves to shine for the next 5 billion years.
3) Nobel Prize for Einstein – For explaining the photoelectric (photovoltaic) effect that solar panels use to create current flow, the scientist Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921.
4) NASA first big client - The space industry already decided to use solar energy in 1950 to power its spacecrafts and satellites. Until today, the solar panel has remained the number 1 energy source in the Universe.
5) Half of Germany for the whole Earth - Scientists have calculated that 191,000 square kilometers of solar panels would be enough to produce the total energy needs on Earth. It would be the area of half of Germany or 3.4 times the area of Croatia.
6) Solar and Clouds - As strange as it may sound, the fact is that the development of new solar panel technologies is bringing less and less need for direct sunlight to produce energy. The solar power plant provides electricity even in cloudy weather.
7) Solar is the cheapest – Due to falling prices of solar equipment over the last decade, solar energy has been the cheapest renewable source of electricity on the planet since 2017. From 2019 it is even cheaper than electricity obtained from fossil fuels.