sol-, soli-, solo- +

The conception, design, and construction of buildings and communities so as to make optimal use of incoming solar radiation, as for heating and cooling, or power generation.

The horizontal angle between the sun and due south in the Northern Hemisphere, or between the sun and due north in the Southern Hemisphere.

A sudden, transient enhancement of nonthermal radio emission from the solar corona, usually associated with an active region or flare.

A well-insulated enclosure with a small opening to let in concentrated solar energy, approaching a blackbody absorber in its ability to capture solar energy.

Black body or blackbody is a theoretical object that is simultaneously a perfect absorber and emitter of radiant energy; that is, it absorbs all the radiation striking it and reflects no radiation, and whose energy distribution is dependent only on its temperature.

Any material that converts sunlight directly into electricity.

This property of materials is known as the photoelectric effect, first described in 1905 by albert Einstein in his Nobel prize-winning research.

Here on earth, silicon solar cells have brought abundant clean water, electricity, and telephone services to many in remote regions who had hitherto done without.

A solar-powered airplane that in 1981 flew across the English Channel in 5 hours and 23 minutes.

The plane had 16,000 solar cells mounted on the wings that generated 3,000 watts of power.

A power generating facility that converts solar radiation into the kinetic energy of moving air, which is then transformed into electricity by a turbine.

A collector is covered by a transparent glazing that heats up the air mass inside it; buoyancy then drives the warmer air into the chimney, where it drives a turbine.

1. A term for a city that obtains a significant amount of its total energy needs from solar energy and other renewable resources.
2. Solar City is an international cooperative program to encourage cities and urban regions to substitute renewable and sustainable forms of energy technology for conventional sources, with the long-term goal of achieving globally acceptable greenhouse gas emission levels and lower reliance on fossil fuels.

A flat black paint or another highly absorptive substance that is applied to the absorber plate of a solar collector.

The total radiant energy received vertically from the sun, per unit area per unit of time, at a position just outside the earth's atmosphere when the earth is at its average distance from the sun.

Any of various devices that convert radiant energy from the sun into thermal energy for cooking, water purification, and other household uses.

A typical version is a concave bowl-shaped dish with an inner surface that is made of reflective material; sunlight falling on the inner surface is focused onto a dark cooking pot that is hung or set in front of the cooker.

The use of the sun's radiant energy to cool a living space, by various means; such as, a pond of water on a flat roof that cools via evaporation (passive cooling), or the use of solar energy to power a cooling appliance (active cooling).

The main periodic cycle in the sun's activity that occurs over about an eleven-year period.

The period is not constant, varying between about 9.5 and 12.5 years.

During the cycle, changes occur in the sun's internal magnetic field and in its surface disturbance level.

1. A day defined as one complete rotation of the earth on its axis in relation to the sun.
2. The twenty-four-hour period between two successive transits of the sun across a given meridian on earth.

The apparent angle of the sun either north or south of the earth's equatorial plane.

The earth's rotation on its axis causes a daily change in solar declination.