1. The largest solar power plant is in California. Located in the Mojave desert, the solar energy generating system produces ample energy to meet the electricity needs of half a million people. This amount of electricity is enough to light up the entire city of Sacremento.

2. Japan consumes about half of the world’s solar panel used for collecting and converting solar energy into power. There solar panels in Japan are used to provide power to the residential sector of the country connected to the grid.

3. Solar energy are divided into two types. Firstly, passive solar energy, this converts sunlight into reusable energy without the help of other energy sources. Secondly active solar energy which harnesses the suns energy with a mechanical or electrical system which converts it into usable energy like electricity.

4. The used the concept of burning mirrors to ignite fire in the 700 B.C. From this the concept of harnessing the solar energy came in. In the 15th century burning mirrors were used to solder copper sections of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. Also the Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, from the same era, contains designs for solar concentrators which were used to heat water.

5. The amount of energy which the sun exhibits every hour is more than enough to power the earth for an entire year.

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Margaret Meade once said ‘‘We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.” Truer words were never spoken. We owe our mere existence to the environment. Without it providing us resources we would have gone extinct years ago. Therefore, it becomes our duty to take care of it and not continue with the pattern that we have been following which has endangered the environment.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Reduce air pollution and save car fuel by driving less. Try not to drive within the 5km radius of your home. Instead walk or take you bi-cycle. It will prove to be a good exercise also.
2. Using stairs instead of the elevator can not only be good for your health but the environment also.
3. When you are stuck in a traffic jam, turn your car off. It uses up more fuel.
4. During summer, the use of air conditioner can use up to 20% more fuel. So turn the air conditioner off when the car gets cool enough. Also make sure that the coolant I recyclable.
5. Try servicing your car on a regular basis. A car can use up to 50% more fuel and give off 50% more carbon if not tuned properly.
6. Instead of using your car daily try joining a car pool. It’s less fuel-consuming.
7. Grow your own food. Not only is it much healthier but food transportation, which is the reason for greenhouse gas emissions will automatically decrease.
8. Be kind not only to the environment but to the creatures in it. Try not eating endangered animals/birds/fish.
9. When visiting your local coffee café, take your own mug/flask instead of using their unrecyclable cups.
10. When grocery shopping, take your own cloth bag or basket and not use their plastic or paper bag. And if you do use them then save them n reuse them. Read the full story

It’s a well known fact that fossil fuels have toyed with our environment and this has resulted in pollution and global warming besides many other issues. Now with the awareness of environmental hazards and the entire world going green, the popularity of Bio-fuels is growing by the day

Biological Fuels or Bio-fuels are prepared from reusable or recycled materials. And thanks to the modern-day scientific research, bio-fuels are playing a vital role in contributing to the world a number of benefits. Below are just some of the benefits illustrated. Read the full story

China is emerging as the world’s clean energy “powerhouse”. China has beaten up the United States as the top investor in clean energy. In 2009, for the first time China led the world in clean energy investments and Britain achieved the 3^rd position. In the past year, China surprisingly spent $34.6 billion in clean energy which is double then that of United States $18.6 billion. World’s largest economy lost the top spot in clean energy.

China had made a strategic decision to invest in wind and solar technologies. It has a huge wind turbine production sector and is the world’s largest solar cells producer. Its aim is to achieve 30 gigawatt renewable energy capability set up by 2020 but soon it will surpass the target. Britain’s advancement in this sector is due to vast government-backed offshore wind power projects and made investments into the young marine energy sector.

Britain spent $11.2 billion, gained 3^rd position followed by Spain and Brazil. South Korea moved with 250 percent growth of setup capability. Since 2005, global investments in this sector have doubled and are proposed to reach $200 billion in 2010.

As a percentage of their economies China, Brazil, Spain, Britain and Germany have the most vigorous clean energy sectors with strong green policies which consist of carbon markets, feed-in-tariffs, and mandated clean energy targets and priority loans for renewable energy projects. Due to China, United States competitive position is at threat in the up coming clean energy economy.

United State is on the border of losing its leadership position in established renewable energy capacity, with China soaring in the previous several years to a virtual tie. Some researches show that in last year Spain invested five times more than the United States while China, Brazil and the United Kingdom invested three times more. Half of the G20 countries spent a larger proportion of their gross domestic product on clean energy.

Though US is termed to be the world’s largest economy, it doesn’t seem to be taking clean energy strategies very seriously as it still considers itself free from major pollution issues. China on the other hand, has to adopt to clean energy as fast as possible due to its impending population rise and also rising pollution. Being the world’s largest country, it has serious pollution issues that needs immediate attention, and thus, its capability to beat off US in green investments can be understood. The US does need to realize that it too needs to take up clean energy challenges seriously, as more consumption is increased, in regards of cars and technology. Any carelessness will result in environmental issues.

The world is moving fast and there are many astonishing possibilities in near future to use  the ‘useless’ materials for creating fuels. That is, the stuff we don’t think about, may get worth after renewing  and utilizing it. Scientists are working on bio-materials to use it as car fuels. Some of the peculiar car fuels made of bio-materials are mentioned below:

Chocolaty Fuel: Did you ever imagined of car that runs on fuel made of chocolate. Well, this doesn’t mean Hershey’s syrups are used instead of diesel. A group from University of Warwick, Britain is working on Formula 3 Race car that runs on biodiesel which have 30% derived from chocolate wastes. Moreover, the steering wheel is partially made of carrots and the mirrors and aerodynamic front wing is prepared of potato starch and fiber of flax. Read the full story

In third world countries, solar power refrigerators are used most commonly. These solar refrigerators works by harnessing the solar energy, and they preserve the goods like meat, vegetables and dairy. The much needed vaccines are also placed in those refrigerators to avoid them from spoiling. The portable devices of the solar refrigerators can be constructed easily by use of simple components, and it really works in the areas where there is no electricity or unreliable power supply.

Different size and technology solar power refrigerators are being already employed in Africa. The biggest challenge for solar power refrigerators is unreliability of the sunshine, as its available several hours in the day but sometime it’s cloudy for days. So to have constant refrigeration phase, change material is added.

Solar Refrigerators Impact on Environment:

Conventional refrigerators are having some dangerous impacts on the environment such as contributing to ozone layer depletion and global warming. The substances in refrigerators that cause the ozone layer depleting and global warming are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), in their insulation foam or their refrigerant cycle are the most harmful. In 80′s, CFC’s were banned then they were replaced with substances such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) both are the ozone depleting and contribute to global warming chemicals. Solar energy use for refrigeration tries hard to have minimum impacts on the environment. Read the full story

Tidal Energy is a natural source of energy, but it has some prominent following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of Tidal Energy:

• Tidal power is free.
• It have no greenhouse gas emissions and no other wastes.
• Don’t need any fuel.
• Reliable electricity production.
• Its maintenance is not highly expensive.
• Tides are always predictable.
• Offshore turbines and vertical-axis turbines are costly but not costly to built, also that it has positive impact on environment. Read the full story

With only a limited supply of oil and gas available on Earth, it is extremely important to find alternative sources of energy or else with the depletion of these natural resources, humans will be unable to fulfill a number of basic requirements.

Renewable energy can be defined as any form of power that is derived from a source that cannot be depleted. Wind, solar, geothermal and tidal are examples of renewable energy.

There are several benefits of using renewable energy. It has some dominant environmental, economic and societal advantages. Renewable energy sources do not need any fossil fuels to generate power, which makes them environment friendly. Following are the main sources of renewable energy.

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Installation of solar panels at home assists you in two ways; one is that you get cheapest energy for your home and second it increases your home value. Modern solar systems are more accurate, efficient and easy to install. Though initially installation of solar panels cost you much, but on long term you really know that your investment won’t go in vain. When the solar panel will be installed, the costs depreciate over time. The system itself adds value to your home. Overall, you get inner satisfaction that you are using clean and non-polluting systems.

Six Things That Makes Solar Energy a Better Choice:

1. Unlike other energy sources like oil, coal, or natural gas, solar energy is a free source.
2. If you sell back the extra electricity to the electric company made by your solar panel, you can have no electric company bill. Read the full story

There are several advantages and disadvantages associated with wind energy that include the numerous problems linked with wind turbines too.

In this era, we need to look for the various options available to replace the depleting natural resources. It is important to look for more environmental friendly energy sources to help us make our future bright, and wind energy is one of the main sources of renewable energy.

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The world of ours is really through environmental dangers that have even posed questions upon our existence on planet earth. Perhaps that is the reason that people around the globe are opting for the ways of producing energy that is not produced in a way that is harmful for the environment. For instance, instead of relying upon the power that is generated by using coal, oil or other solid fuels, now solar power and wind powered products are being used by the people.

Here in the present article we are going to analyze the products that have been recently launched in the market and that instead of using the energy produced by the conventional ways require the energy that produced by sun. Most of the products being mentioned below either use energy directly taken from the sun or they use the energy that is taken from the sun but it is stored in the batteries for utilizing the sun energy.

Benefits of using solar power products

Using these products you would not only save the electricity cost, but you would also be feeling free from electricity breakdowns and would be contributing in a cleaner environment. The solar power products mentioned below are not only reliable; they are also easily available in the markets.

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