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Solar Cooking. Basking in the Sun. Who hasn’t enjoyed heat from the sun?

Basking in the Sun

Doing so represents a direct energetic transfer—via radiation—from the sun’s hot surface to your skin. One square meter can catch about 1000 W, which is comparable to the output of a portable space heater. The bright future of solar thermal powered factories. Picture: ARUN.

The bright future of solar thermal powered factories

The missing element in our sustainable energy strategy is a renewable source of heat energy A large share of energy consumed worldwide is by heat. Cooking, space heating and water heating dominate domestic energy consumption. In the UK, these activities account for 85 percent of domestic energy use, in Europe for 89 percent and in the USA for 61 percent (excluding cooking). Heat also dominates industrial energy consumption. The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels. Passive solar design requires the knowledge to design and orientate buildings so that they can be heated by the sun.

The solar envelope: how to heat and cool cities without fossil fuels

Coupled with other low-tech solutions such as thermal underwear, heated clothing and tile stoves, passive solar design could all but eliminate the use of fossil fuels and biomass for heating buildings throughout large parts of the world. Indirectly, a passive solar house can also cancel the energy requirements for cooling and ventilation (passive cooling), and for lighting during the day. Of course, passive solar buildings can be outfitted with solar water heaters and PV solar panels, further reducing the use of unsustainable energy resources.