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Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture.[1][2][3] It is an essential source of renewable energy, and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include designing a building for better daylighting, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and organize spaces that naturally circulate air.
In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries' energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible, and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating global warming .... these advantages are global".[1][4]
- ^ a b "Solar Energy Perspectives: Executive Summary" (PDF). International Energy Agency. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2012.
- ^ "Energy". Royal Society of Chemistry. 2 April 2014.
- ^ Maka, Ali O M; Alabid, Jamal M (1 June 2022). "Solar energy technology and its roles in sustainable development". Clean Energy. 6 (3): 476–483. doi:10.1093/ce/zkac023. ISSN 2515-396X.
- ^ Marques Lameirinhas, Ricardo A.; N Torres, João Paulo; de Melo Cunha, João P. (2022). "A photovoltaic technology review: History, fundamentals and applications". Energies. 15 (5): 1823. doi:10.3390/en15051823.