Solar energy can be used for various purposes, including heating and cooling homes, providing indoor sunlight, and promoting plant growth. Passive solar applications, such as building design and greenhouses, are cost-effective and do not require electricity conversion. Solar electricity systems can be expensive but are useful in remote areas. Individual devices, such as outdoor lighting and solar refrigerators, also use solar energy.
Solar energy, or energy derived from sunlight, can be converted into electricity and used for a variety of different purposes. The most common applications of solar energy include powering and optimizing the heating and cooling of homes, providing good conditions for plant growth, and providing cost-effective indoor sunlight. In some cases, solar energy can be useful for heating and lighting without the need for conversion to electricity. Solar energy applications of this type are beneficial because they reduce the need to use electricity and are, therefore, often quite cost effective. While converting solar energy to electricity provides a clean, renewable energy source that can be used for any purpose, the cost of installing the equipment needed to collect, convert, and store the electricity is quite high.
Many of the most common, useful and cost-effective applications of solar energy are passive in nature and do not involve any conversion into electricity. Many homes, for example, are built with the position of the sun at various times of the day in mind, ensuring that the home gets plenty of natural light. Various architectural considerations can also ensure buildings remain at reasonable temperatures. Another of the common applications of this shape can be seen in greenhouses. The sun passes through the transparent greenhouse fence and heats the plants and soil, creating warm air that cannot escape from the fence, thus providing a good environment for plants to grow.
Some solar energy applications require the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Some homes in remote but well-lit areas, for example, use solar energy to provide enough electricity for basic tasks. While installing a solar electricity system can be expensive, it may, over time, be more cost-effective than connecting a building in an isolated area to a power system. The electricity from such solar energy systems can be used like any other electricity, but often needs to be conserved and used only for the essentials. Such a system may not be able to power a full range of electrical appliances for an extended period of time.
Some solar energy applications involve individual devices that have their own built-in solar panels. Many forms of outdoor lighting, for example, harvest solar energy during the day and use that energy to provide light at night. Similar solar energy applications include solar refrigerators and small-scale solar electric generators.
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