Solar Basics
This is where solar energy originally comes from.
What is the sun?
This device stores energy from solar panels for later use.
What is a solar panel?
Approximately this percentage of U.S. electricity comes from solar power as of recent years.
What is about 3-4%?
The U.S. is doing this with solar power use because costs are dropping.
What is increasing?
Solar power produces this amount of greenhouse gas emissions during operation.
What is zero?
This is the process of converting sunlight directly into electricity.
What is photovoltaic (PV) effect?
This term describes the rate at which solar panels convert sunlight into electricity.
What is efficiency?
Solar power costs have done this over the past decade.
What is decreased dramatically? (It becomes much cheaper)
These sunny southwestern states lead the U.S. in solar power production.
What are California, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas?
This is what happens to solar panels at the end of their 25-30 year lifespan.
What is disposal/recycling?
These are the individual units that convert sunlight to electricity
What are solar cells?
This is the type of electrical current that solar panels produce directly.
What is direct current?
This is approximately how much solar power capacity the U.S. has grown in the last 10 years.
What is more than 10 times larger?
These types of buildings are increasingly adding solar panels on their roofs.
What are schools, homes, and businesses?
Solar power helps reduce this type of pollution that causes breathing problems.
What is air pollution?
This type of energy from the sun gets converted into electrical energy by solar panels.
What is solar/light energy?
This term describes how solar panels are connected together to increase power output.
What is an array?
Solar power now employs about this many Americans in installation and manufacturing jobs.
What is over 250,000 people?
This is what many utility companies are building in deserts to generate large amounts of solar power.
What are solar power plants?
Unlike coal or gas plants, solar panels use this amount of water to generate electricity.
What is almost no water?
Solar panels are made up of many small squares called these, which do the actual work of converting sunlight.
What are solar cells/photovoltaic cells
This is the measurement unit for how much electricity a solar panel can produce.
What is a watt?
This federal program gives homeowners money back for installing solar panels.
What is the solar tax credit?
Solar panels work best in areas with this type of climate.
What is sunny and dry?
Some solar panel manufacturing requires mining these materials, which can harm the environment.
What are rare earth metals (or silicon)?