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Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to convert light into an electric current . [ 63 ]
The energy produced by fusion in the core, except a small part carried out by neutrinos, must travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight, or else as kinetic or thermal energy of massive particles. The energy conversion per unit time (power) of fusion in the core varies with distance ...
The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium; they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere.All heavier elements, colloquially called metals in stellar astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant.
Photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons by the photovoltaic effect. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used to power equipment or to recharge batteries .
An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct current (DC) electricity. An inverter can convert the power to alternating current (AC). The most commonly known solar cell is configured as a large-area p–n junction made from silicon. Other possible solar cell types are organic solar cells, dye sensitized solar ...
Solar cycles last typically about eleven years, varying from just under 10 to just over 12 years. Over the solar cycle, sunspot populations increase quickly and then decrease more slowly. The point of highest sunspot activity during a cycle is known as solar maximum, and the point of lowest activity as solar minimum.
Solar radiation peaks in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum when plotted in wavelength units, [20] and roughly 44% of the radiation that reaches the ground is visible. [21] Another example is incandescent light bulbs , which emit only around 10% of their energy as visible light and the remainder as infrared.
This revolution is known as the Solar System's galactic year. [273] The solar apex, the direction of the Sun's path through interstellar space, is near the constellation Hercules in the direction of the current location of the bright star Vega. [274] The plane of the ecliptic lies at an angle of about 60° to the galactic plane. [c]