As an energy source, such energy comes from the sun collected and stored using mechanical pumps or fans to circulate heat-laden fluids or air between solar collectors and a building.

The annual solar savings of a solar building is the energy savings attributable to a solar feature relative to the energy requirements of a non-solar building.

Time determined by the actual position of the sun in the sky which corresponds to time on most sundials.

An advanced type of photovoltaic cell that uses a dye-impregnated layer of titanium dioxicde to generate a voltage, rather than the semiconducting materials used in most solar cells.

Made of semi-conducting materials that can directly convert sunlight to electricity without any harmful waste product.

Solar collector are made more efficient by using arrays of mirrors to concentrate the sun's ray onto photovoltaic panels.

According to the Department of Energy, homes incorporating solar heating designs can save as much as 50 percent on heating bills.

The negative aspects of solar energy is that it depends heavily on a range of factors including location, time of year, and the weather.

An extensive list of related words and definitions may be seen at this photovoltaic terms page.

A measure of the year based on earth's revolution around the sun, which takes 365.2422 days.

This is the calendar used in most of the world today.

The interval between two successive noons.

Since the sun is moving across the sky background at a rate of about one degree per day in an easterly direction, the solar day is slightly longer than the sidereal day; also, the sun's rate of motion varies, and it is greatest at perihelion.

The mean solar day is equal to 24 hours, 3 minutes, 36.555 seconds.

Heat and light which is generated from the sun.

The Solar Energy Technologies Program focuses on developing cost-effective solar-energy technologies that have the greatest potential to benefit the nation and the world.

Solar technologies diversify the energy supply, reduce the country's dependence on imported fuels, improve air quality, and offset greenhouse gas emissions. A growing solar industry also stimulates the economy by creating jobs in solar manufacturing and installation.

The collective name for the sun and all the bodies that orbit around it, including the major planets, their satellites, periodic comets and the asteroids.

Its boundary could be taken as the outermost point reached by Pluto or about fifty astronomical units from the sun.

1. A stream of charged atomic particles, mostly protons an electrons, from the sun's corona, flowing outwards at speeds of between 300 kilometers per second or 200 miles per second and 1,000 kilometers per second or 600 miles per second.
2. The stream of charged particles "blown" by the thermal pressure of the sun out from its corona, which it can not retain by gravity.

In the vicinity of the earth, these particles have a velocity of about 300 miles, or 500 kilometers, per second.