Solar energy is the most abundant energy on the planet. Eighty four billion kilowatt-hours of light energy get to earth every twenty four hours (Dufour, 2015).
Solar energy is energy released from the sun. It is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, microwaves, and radio waves. Solar energy is also released in the form of visible light and infrared radiation. This is one of the most important forms of solar energy(Kolstad, 2016).
A parabola is essential for making a solar hot dog cooker. A parabola formed when all points in a set are all on one point. This point is called the focus. The lines pointing at the focus are called directrix. A parabola is the graph in the x-y coordinate system. The equation for this is y=ax2+bx+c. This equation defines quadratic functions of the parabola. Parabolas are good representations of objects in which focusing is necessary(World of Mathematics, 2007).
There are many benefits to using solar energy. Solar thermal energy is one of the most useful types of solar energy. Conventional electricity is more expensive than solar energy, or more specifically, thermal energy. Investment for a power plant is less than 14% of the total. This gives the system command over things not affordable in any clean power plant technology. Another benefit to using solar energy, is that it needs no fossil fuels. This will increase the amount of fossil fuels we can put towards things that we will need fossil fuels, and in that case there would be no other way around it. Solar energy saves money(Shinnar, 2005).
The functioning systems of a solar oven are simple. One component of a solar oven is to concentrate. One component of a solar oven is to convert. One component of a solar oven is to contain. In solar ovens four reflectors are arranged around a plywood box with insulation to focus and trap the heat(Dufour, 2015).
One of the reasons solar energy is needed, is because the other main source of energy is fossil fuels which won’t last forever. Fossil fuels are buried pieces of petroleum, coal, peat, natural gas, and other carbon-rich organic compounds derived from decomposes of plants and animals that lived a long time ago. Over extended periods of time, pressure generated by overlying sediments and heat from within the Earth have concentrated and modified these materials into valuable energy sources for human purposes(Fossil Fuels, 2014).
Solar energy will save these fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable energy. This means that once it is used up it will be gone indefinitely. Fossil fuels may be renewed at some point by natural events, but it would take millions of years. Fossil fuels have not been renewed since human arrival so it must either, take millions of years to renew itself, or it will never come back when it is one. Even if it did renew at some point, in the time that it was gone, the world would have one into chaos(Renewable energy, 2011).
The use of fossil fuels as a major energy source has many unfavorable environmental effects. Mining for coal usually leaves a broken area of deep holes, decapitated mountain peaks, spoil piles, and rubble. Toxic leakage from abandoned mines hurts thousands of miles of streams in the United States. One of the biggest problems of using fossil fuels as a main source of energy is the human race as a people become dependent on these fossil fuels. This leads to a waste of carbon dioxide made b combustion. Humans burn so much coal and oil that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is exponentially increasing. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it is warming up the atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect(Fossil Fuels, 2014).
The greenhouse effect is a natural occurrence when gases present in the atmosphere absorb heat, which lessens the amount of radiating heat that is on the Earth’s atmosphere heating it. Natural greenhouse gasses are water vapor, CO2, N2O, CH4, and O3, all of which are essential to support life. The greenhouse gases let in sunlight but sometimes insulate Earth against the loss of heat, just like an actual greenhouse hence the name, greenhouse gases. The more of these gases in the atmosphere there are, the warmer climate there will be(Greenhouse effect, 2011).
If people don’t use solar energy, then the fossil fuels will disappear. This will cause the climate to drop, plunging the earth into a state of chaos.