Text 2a. Solar Energy

Solar cells convert solar rays directly into electricity. Non-polluting photovoltaic cells use no fuel, mechanical turbine, or generator to produce electric current, and solar energy is renewable, clean, and abundant. The solar power industry has enjoyed double-digit growth in recent years, but solar energy has historically suffered from inexpensive oil, which has been cheap and easy to produce. As air pollution worsens and global petroleum supplies get squeezed tighter in the future, the world's energy providers will look to the Sun for a clean, renewable, and decentralized energy source.

Every day, the surface of planet Earth is blasted with so much solar energy that, if harnessed, 60 seconds' worth could power the world's total energy requirements for one year. The Sun is a colossal fusion reactor that has been burning for more than 4 billion years. By some estimates, the amount of solar radiation striking the earth every 72 hours is equivalent to all the energy stored in the planet's coal, oil, and natural gas reserves.

Solar radiation is a free and unlimited natural resource, yet converting it into an energy source is a relatively new idea. Using solar power for heat seems simple enough today, but it wasn't until 1767 that Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure built the first thermal solar collector. He used his solar collector to heat water and cook food. It wasn't until 1891 that the first commercial patent for a solar water heater was awarded to US inventor Clarence Kemp. The patent rights to this system were later purchased by two California executives who, by 1897, had installed the solar-powered water heaters in one-third of the homes in Pasadena, California.

Solar energy has great potential for providing clean and unlimited electricity in many regions of the world. This renewable resource has largely been ignored by many US energy providers because there has been little economic motivation due to the abundance of cheap coal and oil. Corporate shareholders want their profits today, not sometime in the distant future. In the last few decades, however, global energy demand has surged, as have the environmental problems associated with burning coal and oil and the storage of nuclear-generated radioactive waste. In the late 1990s, more governments, utilities, and corporations were embracing renewable energy sources as environmentalists, consumers, and voters pressure them to do so. More importantly, many consumers are willing to pay for "green energy," so suppliers see future profit in non-polluting renewable energy production. Some governments and energy suppliers have been slow to recognize the potential of solar power. Historically, research and development in photovoltaics has progressed erratically, in short-lived bursts of interest. For example, the US Department of Energy (DOE) funded the installation and testing of over 3,000 PV cell systems during the 1973-1974 oil embargo. By the late 1970s, energy companies and government agencies were investing in the PV industry, and an acceleration in module development took place. But solar power remained far behind oil, coal, nuclear, and other non-renewable energy sources. Serious interest in photovoltaics increased again during the 1990s after several military conflicts in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

There are advantages to photovoltaic solar power that make it one of the most promising renewable energy sources. The system is non-polluting, has no moving parts to break down, and requires little maintenance and no supervision. The average unit produces energy for 20–30 years with low operating costs. Solar energy systems are especially unique because they require no extra construction or developed land area, and function safely and quietly. Remote or underdeveloped communities can produce their own supply of electricity by constructing as small or as large a system as needed. When communities grow, more solar energy capacity can then be added as necessary.

There are only two primary disadvantages to using solar power: a limited amount of sunlight and the cost of equipment. The value of sunlight a location receives varies greatly depending upon geographical location, time of day, season, and average cloud cover. The southwestern United States is one of the world's best areas for persistent sunshine. Globally, other areas receiving very high solar intensities include developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Although solar energy technologies have made impressive cost improvements over the years, solar energy is currently still more expensive than traditional fossil fuel sources. However, solar energy is renewable and non-polluting, and the equipment will eventually pay for itself in 2 to 5 years, depending on how much Sun a particular location receives. Then the user will have a virtually free energy source until the end of the equipment's working life. Future improvements are projected to decrease the payback time down to 1–3 years.

As the price of solar-generated electricity decreases and as the environmental and dollar costs of petroleum increases, photovoltaics will expand its international market. Solar power will be an excellent energy option, long after Hydrocarbon Man fades away into the sunset. Clean, renewable photovoltaic-generated power enjoys obvious advantages when compared to coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.

Exercise 2.Look through the text and answer the questions:

1.What is the future application of the solar energy? 2.Can solar energy meet the world’s energy requirements? Prove your point of view. 3.What was the background of using solar energy in the past? 4. Why did the providers ignore the production of this renewable source of energy? 5.What made them change their mind? 6. Are their any disadvantages of solar energy? 7. What prevails: advantages or disadvantages of solar energy?

Exercise 3. Translate the following attributive constructions into Russian:

1. direct solar heating, high-grade electricity, low capacity factor, future energy demands, consequent energy losses, overall net efficiency, overall power output,

2. total world energy demand, pumped-storage hydro-systems, base-load electricity generation, anti-nuclear environmental groups, remote area telecommunications equipment, earthbound signaling and communication equipment, actual solar collecting cells, a solar thermal power plant.

Exercise 4. Explain the meaning of the following terms:

Solar energy, mechanical turbine, energy providers, solar radiation, unlimited natural resources, solar-powered water heaters, an environmentalist, a consumer.

Exercise 5. Complete the following sentences using Gerund and translate them into Russian.

1.The world’s energy providers are interested in … .

2.Solar energy has great potential for … .

3.Many environmental problems are associated with … .

4.Energy suppliers see future profit in … .

5.Remote communities can produce their own supply of electricity by… .

6.The first solar collector was used for … .

Exercise 6. Translate the following sentences paying attention to Gerund.

1.The importance of dependable electricity generation, transmission and distribution was revealed when it became apparent that electricity was useful for providing heat, light and power for human activities. 2.Electricity has been generated for the purpose of powering human technologies for at least 120 years from various sources of potential energy. 3.Turbines are usually rotated by using steam, water, wind or other fluid as an intermediate energy carrier. 4.Power generation by thermonuclear fusion has been suggested as a possible way of generating electricity. 5.A wind turbine is a device for converting wind power to mechanical rotation with a low velocity turbine designed for compressible fluids. 6.In typical land-based installations, a tower lifting the bottom of the turbine 30 meters will pay for itself by placing the turbine in faster air. 7.Renewable energy can help provide for our future needs by harnessing abundant, naturally occurring sources of energy, such as the sun, the wind, geothermal heat, and biomass. 8.The deployment of renewables may be stimulated by increasing environmental concerns over the generally much more significant global impacts of using conventional energy technologies. 9.By using wind energy to power our homes and businesses, we can strengthen our energy independence and lessen our reliance on fossil fuels. 10. Supplying low cost electricity with acceptable safety and low environmental impact will depend substantially on developing and deploying reasonably sophisticated technology.

Exercise 7. Look through the text and try to explain why solar energy systems are especially unique.

Exercise 8. Make a round table talk discussing advantages and disadvantages of solar power. Use additional material to prove your point of view.

Exercise 9. Read and translate the text 2B.

TEXT 2B. HISTORY OF SOLAR ELECTRIC POWER

Photovoltaic – basically means having the ability to convert light directly into electricity.

In 1838, physicist Edmund Becquerel, at the age of nineteen, was the first scientist to publish observations about this natural “photovoltaic” phenomenon of materials. Edmund’s reported observations were considered very interesting yet there were seemingly no practical applications.

35 years later, in 1873, Willoughby Smith first reported observing the light sensitivity of the element selenium while testing materials for underwater telegraph cables for the Telegraph Construction Company in Great Britain. The first observation of the photovoltaic effect in a solid, led to experimentation and speculation in to possible uses of a selenium solar cell.

In 1883, inventor Charles Fritz produced a solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 1-2%. This invention that produced usable electricity from sunlight caused a considerable amount of excitement for the potential use. However, industrial or commercial applications did not materialize.

By the time Thomas Edison received the first patent for incandescent light bulb in 1898, generating electricity with large turbines was the accepted standard. The research surrounding electricity at this time was more focused on the control and distribution from centralized generators and the uses of electricity. Consumer electrical product development and marketing of electrical devices became big business.

Modern solar electric power technologies came about in 1954 when Bell Laboratories experimentation with semiconductors unexpectedly found silicon doped with certain impurities was very sensitive to light. The end result was the invention of the first practical solar modules with an energy conversion efficiency of around 6 percent.

Over the last few decades, NASA has used photovoltaic cells extensively proving the technology to be an excellent means to supply electrical power for the communications, instruments, and controls in spacecraft. The current space station has a large solar electric system for generating electricity.

Photovoltaics in the 1950’s and 60’s was still considered by most as a futuristic technology appropriate only for high tech remote and special applications. This attitude was mainly due to the high expense of manufacturing the solar cells.

Photovoltaics (or ‘solar cells’) being produced today have greatly improved conversion efficiencies and much more cost efficient production methods. With today’s large scale production of solar cells the cost of the cells have now become affordable and cost efficient for many applications requiring electricity

Solar electric systems are now installed on tens of thousands of homes, businesses, communication stations, and countless other applications, supplying all or part of their electrical energy needs. Around the world many more systems are being installed every day.

Why not to begin producing clean, renewable energy for some of your power needs today?

Exercise 10. Retell the text using the following dates:

1838, 1873, 1883, 1898, 1954, 1950s and 1960s.

Exercise 11. Read the text 2C and make a brief summary in English.