Solar Energy Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

Free long solar energy trivia quiz questions with answers.

Solar Energy Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

What is solar energy?
A: Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun.

Solar energy is an important source of what?
A: Renewable energy.

Its technologies are broadly characterized as what?
A: Either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and convert it into solar power.

Orienting a building to the Sun is an example of what type of solar energy?
A: Passive.

Selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties are what type of solar energy?
A: Passive.

Solar panels to generate electricity are what type of solar energy?
A: Active.

The large magnitude of solar energy available makes it a highly appealing source of what?
A: Electricity.

The United Nations Development Program in its 2000 World Energy Assessment found what?
A: That the annual potential of solar energy was several times larger than the total world energy consumption.

Approximately 30% of the solar energy striking the earth is reflected back to space while the rest is what?
A: Absorbed by clouds, oceans and land masses.

The spectrum of solar light at the Earth's surface is mostly spread across the what?
A: Visible and near-infrared ranges with a small part in the near-ultraviolet.

Sunlight absorbed by the oceans and land masses keeps the surface at what average temperature?
A: 14 °C.

By using photosynthesis what do green plants convert solar energy into?
A: Chemically stored energy which produces food, wood and the biomass from which fossil fuels are formed.

The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the planet is so vast that in one year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from what?
A: All of the Earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined.

Areas that are closer to the equator have a greater amount of what?
A: Solar radiation.

Photovoltaics that can follow the sun can increase the solar energy potential in what areas?
A: Areas that are farther from the equator.

Cloud cover can affect the potential of solar panels because clouds do what?
A: Block incoming light from the sun.

Land availability has a large effect on the available solar energy because solar panels can only be set up on land that is what?
A: Otherwise unused and suitable for solar panels.

In 1878, at the Universal Exposition in Paris, who successfully demonstrated a solar steam engine?
A: Augustin Mouchot.

Solar hot water systems use what to heat water?
A: Sunlight.

What are the most common types of solar water heaters?
A: Evacuated tube collectors (44%), glazed flat plate collectors (34%), and unglazed plastic collectors (21%).

As of 2007, what was the total installed capacity of solar hot water systems?
A: Approximately 154 thermal gigawatts. (GW)

What country is the world leader in their deployment of solar hot?
A: China

What two countries are the per capita leaders in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them?
A: Israel and Cyprus.

In the USA, Canada, and Australia, what is the dominant application of solar hot water?
A: Heating swimming pools.

In the United States, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for what percentage of the energy used in commercial buildings?
A: 30%.

What percentage of the energy is used for (HVAC) in residential buildings?
A: 50%.

Solar heating, cooling and ventilation technologies can be used to what?
A: Offset a portion of this energy.

Solar concentrating technologies such as parabolic dish, trough and Scheffler reflectors can provide process heat for what kind of applications?
A: Commercial and industrial.

What are evaporation ponds?
A: Shallow pools that concentrate dissolved solids through evaporation.

The use of evaporation ponds to obtain what, from seawater, is one of the oldest applications of solar energy?
A: Salt.

Clothes lines dry clothes through evaporation by wind and sunlight without what?
A: Consuming electricity or gas.

Solar distillation can be used to make saline or brackish water what?
A: Potable.

Solar power is anticipated to become the world's largest source of electricity by what year?
A: 2050.

In 2016, after another year of rapid growth, solar generated what percentage of total global power?
A: 1.3%.