The average amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth's upper atmosphere on a surface perpendicular to the sun's rays; equal to 1353 Watts per square meter or 492 Btu per square foot.

A building heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning system that distributes conditioned air to individual zones or rooms.

The vacancy where an electron would normally exist in a solid; behaves like a positively charged particle.

An electrically charged atom or group of atoms that has lost or gained electrons; a loss makes the resulting particle positively charged; a gain makes the particle negatively charged.

In reference to solar photovoltaic cell manufacure, a method of growing a large-size, high-quality crystal whereby coils heat a polycrystalline ingot placed atop a single-crystal seed. As the coils are slowly raised the molten interface beneath the coils ...

A building that is elongated in the east-west direction, with the majority of the windows on the south side. The area of the windows is generally limited to about 7% of the total floor area. A sun-tempered design has no added thermal mass beyond what is a ...

Fabricated as a single structure.

Any liquid petroleum product burned for the generation of heat in a furnace or firebox, or for the generation of power in an engine. Domestic (residential) heating fuels are classed as Nos. 1, 2, 3; Industrial fuels as Nos. 4, 5, and 6.

The amount of energy absorbed (or converted) by a solar collector (or photovoltaic cell or module) over a 15 minute period.

The highest wind speed at which a wind turbine stops producing power.

The tank of a water heater.

A curve on a chart showing power (kW) supplied (on the horizontal axis) plotted against time of occurrence (on the vertical axis) to illustrate the variance in a load in a specified time period.

A current carrier, either an electron or a hole, that is in the minority in a specific layer of a semiconductor material; the diffusion of minority carriers under the action of the cell junction voltage is the current in a photovoltaic device.

The part of an energy utility's charge based on actual energy consumed by the customer; the product of the kilowatt-hour rate and the total kilowatt-hours consumed.

The resistance between metallic contacts and the semiconductor.

A utility owned by stockholders or other investors; sometimes referred to as a private utility, in contrast to a public utility that is owned by a government agency or cooperative.

A battery that uses lithium in the negative electrode and a metal sulfide in the positive electrode, and the electrolyte is molten salt; can store large amounts of energy per unit weight.

A plastic foam insulation product, pressed or extruded into board-like forms, used as sheathing and insulation for interior basement or crawl space walls or beneath a basement slab; can also be used for exterior applications inside or outside foundations, ...

The heat produced by combusting a specific quantity and volume of fuel in an oxygen-bomb colorimeter under specific conditions.

Power plants, whose output depends on a factor(s) that cannot be controlled by the power generator because they utilize intermittent resources such as solar energy or the wind.