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Article for: The Davis Enterprise
Date: January 10, 2003
Author: Dawn Henson
Contact: Tom Wickersham

Energy exists everywhere. However you cannot see it with the naked eye unless it is in the form of light or in an electric spark.

You can witness the result of energy and even harness it to make electricity, but sometimes the result of making energy can cause unwanted pollution.

How can humans create more “clean” energy? What are our current options when it comes to providing alternative energy for today's homes, schools and offices? "Harness the Sun" and go meet the Davis Solar Group during Explorit's "Meet The Scientist" series tomorrow at 1 p.m. This group will have some possible answers.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the current projections for total world fossil energy consumption "range from 380 Quads in 1997 to 606 Quads in 2020, which amounts to a 60% increase in this 23 year period." A quad (or U.S. quadrillion) is 1,000,000,000,000,000 Btu, or British Thermal Unit.

According to the EIA, population increases much faster than energy per capita consumption. Fossil fuels including natural gas, coal and petroleum oil show evidence in causing the planet and its inhabitants a variety of different problems, so alternative methods for energy need to be studied and utilized.

Tomorrow families can create electricity with the Davis Solar Group and learn how they give homes, schools and offices an alternative to fossil fuels using photovoltaic cells. The Davis Solar Group will show samples and show how photovoltaic cells work. "Meet the Scientist" with the Davis Solar Group ends at 3 p.m.

Visitors will learn that the sun is a bright alternative energy option that has the ability to produce heat and electricity without giving off massive amounts of pollution. Families will get a hands-on view of the potential of the sun.

Families get in free with Explorit's regular $3 admission. While at Explorit visit the exhibition “Watts Up! Explorations in Energy” for more information about how solar energy works and discover other energy alternatives such as wind energy.

Did you know that the sun is about 93 million miles away and it takes 500 seconds or about eight minutes for the sun's light to reach Earth? The temperature on the sun's surface called the photosphere is about 6,000˚C (or 11,000˚F) with the sun producing almost 400 trillion megawatts of energy.

The power of the sun has been harnessed by Egyptians within the architecture of their great pyramids and by Greeks who used of mirrors to focus light as weapons of war. Today sun energy is used worldwide, for example, Tokyo has over 1.5 million buildings equipped with solar water heaters.

Visit with the Davis Solar Group at Explorit tomorrow to learn more.

For more information about the sun, check out www.fsec.ucf.edu/ed/SM/ch1-general/timeline.htm or www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm.

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