What is Solar Energy?

Jason Pazulski B

11/15/10

Introduction

Solar energy has been used in many ways to help revolutionize the way we gather, and utilize energy

What is a Solar Panel?

A solar panel is a conductive material that produces electricity directly from light

These are also called photovoltaic cells, or solar cells

Solar cells have dropped in price 31% from 1998 to 2008

Who is a person that works with Solar Energy?Anyone who works with solar

energy is classified as a scientist

More specific types of scientists that work with solar energy may be bio engineers, astronomers, and chemical engineers

Who is a person that works with Solar Energy?The reason bio engineers work

with solar energy is because they study living organisms, and anything living needs the sun

Astronomers work with solar energy because the sun is in space, and astronomers study the SUN, planets, galaxies, and other star systems

Who is a person that works with Solar Energy?Chemical engineers work with

solar energy because there is a chemical process in the solar panels that produces the electricity

Chemical engineers are the scientists who develop and test the chemical processes

When does Solar Energy work the best?Solar panels collect almost all of

the solar energy during the daySome solar panels actually use

the heat that was produced by the sun, to continue making energy through the night, although it is not as much, or efficient as direct sunlight

Where was solar energy first used or found?Solar energy was first actually

used in France by Alexander Edmond Becquerel, and Antoine Cesar Becquerel in 1839

Why was solar energy invented?Solar Energy was found

accidentally by Antoine and Alexander Becquerel

Solar energy was also used by John Herschel as a survival method to cook food while he was on an Africa expedition

Solar energy was advanced (not first created) to help lower the amount of coal we use

Chemical Engineer

Solar energy is gathered by solar panels and there is a chemical process that allows that to happen -About half of chemical engineers make

$97,900 a year in Maryland -In Maryland, there are 730 chemical

engineers employed now -It is estimated that there will be a 12%

increase in the amount of chemical engineers from 2006 to 2016

A few related careers are geoscientists, conservation scientists, and nuclear engineers

High School Career Academies I will go to Atholton High

SchoolI researched the Pre-

Engineering Academy I chose this career academy

because it has to do with engineering

The University of Maryland

The location of the college I researched is College Park, Maryland

The tuition is $8,416 a year The program requirements are: you need: 128

credits and fulfillment of all Departmental, College, and University requirements with a grade point average of 2.0

The school’s mascot is a diamondback terrapin, the percentage of students that graduate is 80%, and there are 35,369 students enrolled

Community Service

I chose to volunteer as a firefighterThe reason I chose this is because

to be a chemical engineer, you must work very hard, and that is no different than firefightersThey both work with tools and have to

find solutions to problemsBeing a volunteer fire fighter also

seems like an interesting job

Prior Job Experience

I have volunteered as a firefighterI worked at McDonald’sI worked at the Columbia Ice Rink as a

referee

Citing

I used Career One Stop to look at the trends, wages, and advancement

I used About My Planet’s picture of a solar panel

I used Florida Solar Energy Center’s graph on where solar panels gather the most energy in the U.S.A

I used a picture from Biosulf.org of a scientist