In my opinion “Solar Energy” is the best because, it’s renewable, it’s affordable and it’s safe for your environment.
First, if you pick “solar” than “wind” is a best choice because, solar has no moving parts, has a better reliability and has a 25 year warranty, and requires less space in most cases as the panels can be installed on a roof.
Second “Fossil Fuels” is a good but if you pick “solar” its better because solar is a clean power, doesn’t have a smell, and we can get power by the sun.
Third “Geothermal” vs. “solar”, well they are both good but let me explain it to you, solar captures the energy of the sun by exiting electrons and capturing that energy in wires, while “geothermal” takes advantage of the ground, which is 50-55 degrees year round just a few-feet below the surface, so I’ll bet that you pick “solar” than “Geothermal”.
Last “Hydro” power can be used all day and night, as the solar, of course, it can only be used during the day, but solar does produces more power than hydro so it’s more efficient to have solar than hydro power.
Again “Biomass vs. Solar, for me I’ll go with “solar” because solar contains stored energy from the “SUN” and the solar panels have efficiencies as high as 19% meaning that much of sun’s energy is converted into electricity, then the efficiency of biomass is much, much lower perhaps 1% so I rather go with solar than Biomass.
6 Things you didn’t know about Solar? (Source: http://energy.gov/articles/top-6-things-you-didnt-know-about-solar-energy)
- The first silicon solar cell, the precursor of all solar-powered devices, was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. On page one of its April 26, 1954 issue, The New York Times proclaimed the milestone, “the beginning of a new era, leading eventually to the realization of one of mankind’s most cherished dreams — the harnessing of the almost limitless energy of the sun for the uses of civilization.”
- The space industry was an early adopter of solar technology. In the 1960s the space industry began to use solar technology to provide power aboard spacecraft’s. The Vanguard 1 — the first artificial earth satellite powered by solar cells — remains the oldest manmade satellite in orbit – logging more than 6 billion miles.
- Fast track to today and demand for solar in the United States is at an all-time high. In the first quarter of 2012, developers installed 85 percent more solar panels compared to the first quarter of last year. Total U.S. installations may reach 3,300 megawatts this year – putting the country on track to be the fourth largest solar market in the world.
- As prices continue to fall, solar energy is increasingly becoming an economical energy choice for American homeowners and businesses. Still, the biggest hurdle to affordable solar energy remains the soft costs – like permitting, zoning, and hooking a solar system up to the power grid. On average local permitting and inspection processes add more than $2,500 to the total cost of a solar energy system. The Energy Department Sun Shot Initiative works to aggressively drive down these soft costs – making it faster and cheaper for families and businesses to go solar.
- Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on earth – 173,000 terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That’s more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy use.
- The largest solar energy project in the world is currently under construction. The project relies on a technology known as solar thermal energy. Once the project is complete 350,000 mirrors will reflect light onto boilers. When the water boils, the steam turns a turbine, creating electricity. The project is expected to provide clean, renewable energy for 140,000 homes and is supported by an Energy Department loan guarantee.
How do Solar Panels work? (Source:http://www.solarenergy.org/answers-younger-kids)
Solar electric panels are made up of something called silicon, the same thing that makes up sand. There is more silicon on the planet than almost anything else. Even though you can find silicon almost everywhere, making a solar panel is difficult and expensive.
The silicon has to be heated to super high temperatures in a big factory, and then formed into very thin wafers.
When sunlight hits a solar panel, it makes electrons in the silicon move around. (Electrons are teeny tiny specks–they’re way too small for us to see, even under a microscope.)
The electrons flow through wires that were built into the solar panel. And presto! We have electricity! We can do whatever we want with this electricity, run a calculator, a CD player, or, if we have big enough solar panels, a satellite! [Solar panels are also called photovoltaic panels. “Photo” means light and “voltaic” means electricity.
What is Solar Cooking?(Source: http://www.solarenergy.org/answers-younger-kids)
In the United States, the stoves in our houses run on electricity or gas. In other parts of the world, many people still cook over campfires. One of the many cool things about solar ovens is that they don’t need electricity, gas, or wood to work–they cook food using only sunlight! Basically, you put food in a box and trap the sun’s heat by covering the box with glass or plastic. (Solar cooking is an example of using solar thermal energy.)
And they’re easy to make! You can make one with two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, covered with glass or plastic. You can put crumpled-up newspaper between the two boxes to help trap the sun’s heat, paint the inside black, and put aluminum foil outside to help reflect more sun into the cooker. Even a simple solar cooker like this one can reach temperatures over 250? F.
Solar cookers are great because they save money and energy, and produce no pollution. People don’t have to cut down trees for firewood, and they make no nasty smoke to hurt people’s lungs, things that are big problems in countries that don’t have as much money as we do. Solar cookers can also be used to make water safe to drink, make doctor’s tools safe to use, and heat water for laundry.
Solar Panels can be used to power different things (Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_boat)
- Solar cars- A solar car is a solar vehicle used for land transport, Solar cars combine technology typically used in the aerospace, bicycle, alternative energy and automotive industries. The design of a solar vehicle is severely limited by the amount of energy input into the car. Most solar cars have been built for the purpose of solar car races. Since 2011 also solar-powered cars for daily use on public roads are designed List of solar cars (with homologation). Solar cars are often fitted with gauges as seen in conventional cars.
- Solar Impulse/plane- is a Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft project[1] developed at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The project eventually hopes to achieve the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power. The project is led by Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop,[2] and Swiss businessman André Borschberg..
- Solar Boat/Scout- While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power and gasoline engines also remaining popular, boats powered by electricity have been used for over 120 years. Electric boats were very popular from the 1880s[1] until the 1920s, when the internal combustion engine took dominance. Since the energy crises of the 1970s, interest in this quiet and potentially renewable marine energy source has been increasing steadily again, especially as solar cells became available, for the first time making possible motorboats with an infinite range like sailboats. The first practical solar boat was probably constructed in 1975 in England.[2 .
As shown above, there are a lot of things you can power by the solar energy/sun, you can power cars, houses, boats, airplanes and etc.
Since”solar energy”can power to almost all things, how about trying this to our rollercoaster?