Test: Non Conventional Sources Of Energy

The trapping of heat in the environment due to the presence of greenhouse gases like CO₂, methane, water vapour etc is the greenhouse effect. This raises the temperature of the earth.
In the solar cooker the same process occurs, the sun rays are reflected by the mirror are trapped in the solar cooker by the glass plate (green house effect) and is used to heat the food.

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of elements in the actinide series of the periodic table. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators. The possibility of generating electricity from nuclear fusion is still at a research phase with no commercial applications. This article mostly deals with nuclear fission power for electricity generation.

As the artificial satellites fly in space solar energy is easily available to them so solar panels are stuck to the satellite in the form of wings.

The amount of solar energy received by India is a whopping 5000 trillion KWH per year . But due to India's land usage pattern, the country's harness-able solar power potential has been estimated to be 750 GW.

The major problem in harnessing nuclear energy is how to dispose off spent fuel safely as nuclear waste is the major problem in harnessing nuclear energy.

The first controlled fission of an atom was carried out in Germany in 1938. Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of the atom.

"Solar cells are being made of different types of semiconductor materials. Main types of materials from which solar cells are being made are listed as below,

Silicon based cells- Poly Silicon, Mono Silicon,
Thinfilm cells- amorphous Silicon, CdTe, CIGS, ZnS, CuZnTinS"

Infrared radiations emitted by sunlight is used in heating up a solar cooker.

Ocean thermal energy conversion is a method used to create electricity that uses the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow water, since the water is colder at greater depths.

Black is the ultimate heat absorber. It absorbs all light on the visual spectrum, creating a void of light. As a result of absorbing all light wavelengths, black is the hottest possible color.

"The Sun has been radiating an enormous amount of energy at the present rate for nearly 5 billion years and will continue radiating at that rate for about 5 billion years more. Only a small part of solar energy reaches the outer layer of the earth’s atmosphere. Nearly half of it is absorbed while passing through the atmosphere and the rest reaches the earth’s surface."

20^​oC is the minimum temperature difference required between 2 km of depth in ocean water to set up an ocean thermal power plant.

Nuclear energy is one of the most environmentally friendly conventional sources of energy as it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions during the production of electricity in comparison to sources like coal power plants.