A window glazing coating, usually tinted bronze or gray, used to reduce building cooling loads, glare, and fabric fading.

The percentage of a building's seasonal energy requirements that can be met by a solar energy device(s) or system(s).

A device that achieves very high temperatures by the use of reflectors to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a small receiver.

The amount of energy that a building absorbs due to solar energy striking its exterior and conducting to the interior or passing through windows and being absorbed by materials in the building.

The amount of solar radiation, both direct and diffuse, received at any location.

A term used for materials used to absorb and store solar energy.

A solar photovoltaic device that produces a specified power output under defined test conditions, usually composed of groups of solar cells connected in series, in parallel, or in series-parallel combinations.

The time of the day, at a specific location, when the sun reaches its highest, apparent point in the sky; equal to true or due, geographic south.

A solar thermal electric central reciever power plant ("power tower") located in Barstow, California, and completed in 1981. The Solar One had a design capacity of 10,000 peak kilowatts, and was composed of a receiver located on the top of a tower surroun ...

See Solar Module.

A body of water that contains brackish (highly saline) water that forms layers of differing salinity (stratifies) that absorb and trap solar energy. Solar ponds can be used to provide heat for industrial or agricultural processes, building heating and coo ...

A solar power station investigated by NASA that entailed a satellite in geosynchronous orbit that would consist of a very large array of solar photovoltaic modules that would convert solar generated electricity to microwaves and beam them to a fixed point ...

A general term for the visible and near visible (ultraviolet and near-infrared) electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by the sun. It has a spectral, or wavelength, distribution that corresponds to different energy levels; short wavelength radiation ha ...

An apparatus that replicates the solar spectrum, and used for testing solar energy conversion devices.

A solar energy system designed to provide heat to individual rooms in a building.

The total distribution of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the sun. The different regions of the solar spectrum are described by their wavelength range. The visible region extends from about 390 to 780 nanometers (a nanometer is one billionth of o ...

Solar energy conversion technologies that convert solar energy to electricity, by heating a working fluid to power a turbine that drives a generator. Examples of these systems include central receiver systems, parabolic dish, and solar trough.

A solar thermal technology that uses a modular mirror system that approximates a parabola and incorporates two-axis tracking to focus the sunlight onto receivers located at the focal point of each dish. The mirror system typically is made from a number of ...

Solar energy systems that collect or absorb solar energy for useful purposes. Can be used to generate high temperature heat (for electricity production and/or process heat), medium temperature heat (for process and space/water heating and electricity gene ...

The period marked by successive crossing of the earth's meridian by the sun; the hour angle of the sun at a point of observance (apparent time) is corrected to true (solar) time by taking into account the variation in the earth's orbit and rate of rotatio ...