You Need Green Energy Part 3&4

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3. What is solar thermal



energy?Solar thermal energy refers to harnessing the sun's

light to produce heat. Heat results when photons, packets of light energy,

strike the atoms composing a substance (water, your body, asphalt), exciting

them. Solar thermal technologies include passive solar systems for heating (or

cooling!) buildings; flat plate solar collectors, often used for providing

households with hot water; and solar concentrator power systems. These systems,

also known as solar thermal power plants, use the sun's heat to create steam,

which then turns a turbine and produces electricity. (Fossil fuel burning power

plants also produce electricity by first creating steam in order to turn a

turbine.)

4. Can I heat my house with


photovoltaics? Using electricity to heat a house, as anyone who

uses electric heat and pays monthly bills to the utility knows, is very

inefficient and costly. Theoretically, one could heat one's home with

photovoltaics (electricity is electricity, whether it comes from PV panels or

from a coal burning power plant). Practically, though, this would be costly, as

producing electricity from a PV system is more expensive than purchasing it from

the utility. One can, however, heat one's house very effectively and cheaply by

harnessing the sun's energy in other ways  FOR MORE INFO  http://www.ping.fm/zIsr2