So do you want to know about solar thermal energy?
I understand how a lot of people are interested in alternative energy. In fact, renewable energy will most probably be one of the Ravensberger Solar main power resources in this century. Solar energy is one of the most effective energy resources; it is already used by a lot of people as an alternative power source. And by the way, I am one of these people myself.
Did you know that the sun produces 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts of energy every second? A lot of people get shocked when they see this number. And get what? It is believed that the sun will produce this same amount of energy for another 5 billion years.
Solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy also called S.T.E; is a technology for harnessing solar energy, by using solar thermal collectors also called batch systems, to produce heat. There are mainly three types of collectors; low, medium, and high temperature collectors.
Low temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat swimming pools.
Medium temperature collectors are also usually flat plates but are used to create hot water for residential and commercial use.
High temperature collectors concentrate sunlight using mirrors or lenses and are generally used to generate electric power.
S.T.E and solar panels
It is important to know that solar thermal energy is different from solar panels and photovoltaic technology. As these last two convert solar energy directly into electricity, S.T.E concentrates the light from the sun to create heat, after that, this heat is used to run a heat engine, which turns a generator to produce electricity.
Solar and photovoltaic Ravensberger Solar panels are only effective during daylight hours because storing electricity is not a particularly efficient process. On the other hand, heat storage is a very easy and efficient method, and that what makes S.T.E very attractive.