The book Solar Energy Systems Design is offered in a newly revised and free version on this Web site. It is an excellent resource to learn about solar power and the technology that is used to harness it. Seven chapters describe how the sun itself produces energy, how the sun's position relative to the earth's surface effects energy system generation, and how various collectors work. In addition to...

The Solar Database, or SoDa, is described as an integration and exploitation of networked Solar radiation Databases for environment monitoring and as a project that aims to integrate European-wide solar radiation resources (i.e. databases, processing chains and educational resources) into one, thematically organized, Web site. The search tool allows users to search for data from a variety of...

Published in July 2002 by the Energy Research Foundation of the Netherlands, this 50-page report describes current and future Solar Thermal Power technologies. It offers a unique perspective by looking ahead to the "global energy supply and demand until 2100." Five main technologies are described, and two are examined in depth. The first is a solar tower design that uses a large array of mirrors...