Kerry, a writer for Realty Times, observes that when one hears about solar energy, the first thing that comes to mind are heating the home, heating the water, or vehicles that are powered with solar power. He tells his readers that there are many other uses for this renewable source. In fact, many are quite surprising, while some are pretty cool. Below is a list of these additional uses of the energy coming from the sun.
1. Transportation Signaling Devices
Solar energy used in different kinds of transportation signalling is common nowadays -- in aircraft warning light structures, offshore navigation buoys, lighthouses, and increasingly even with road traffic warning signals. Aside from being economical, this renewable source of energy is also able to save lives.
2. Environmental Monitoring Equipment
Many may not be aware of it, but the sun keeps people safe from earthquakes and landslides as solar energy is now widely used to run environmental monitoring equipment that prevents natural disasters. Moreover, it also protects all kinds of infrastructure -- pipelines, bridges and others -- from corrosion.
3. Water Supply
It seems, as Kerry wrote, that the Sun is the King of Elements. Apart from the protection it gives against disasters, it also supplies water in places that are usually hard to provide with. Through this alternative energy, water is pumped up to remote areas as portable systems. The water pumps are made, either for submersible use or to float on open water. Moreover, solar energy powers large-scale desalination plants through solar modules that come with battery storage.
4. Charging Various Devices
While this is something not new to many anymore, still it is totally cool. Many companies nowadays are creating solar-powered chargers for many devices used every day like tablets, smartphones and laptops. Aside from being free, you can charge your device anywhere.
5. Recycling
Solar energy is being used by more and more cities worldwide to build trash and recycling compactors. As these devices can hold about five times more trash than ordinary bins, litter is significantly reduced, which results to more savings for cities such as Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
The website SolarEnergy.net, also describes these other uses of solar power around the house:
6. Indoor and Outdoor Lights
You can get rid of those expensive regular lights at home. Both for indoor and outdoor lighting, the solar-powered lights capture energy during the day and store them into small batteries inside the lights which you can use at night.
7. Solar Oven
According to SolarEnergy.net, the first use of solar energy was to cook food in a specially-designed oven that captured the sun's rays to heat food. Such small ovens were originally intended for camping, but works well also for summer cooking. Aside from being inexpensive and environmentally friendly, the use of this type of oven is more convenient than the use of charcoal or propane tanks.
