What is the difference between Solar Energy and Solar Power? That was the topic of a blog written by Scott Sklar, founder and president of The Stella Group, Ltd., in Washington, DC. You can find the original blog by following the link at the bottom of this post. Below is my response to him.
Hey Scott,
Very interesting topic. I think another way to make sense of it is to think of the generic terms: power and energy. Energy is the potential to do work and power is the rate that the potential is put into action.
It seems that to keep in line with the traditional definitions of power and energy, it would make sense to define solar energy as a potential that is generated by the sun. At the point that this potential is converted into electricity and put into action it is then considered power.
To augment what you have said above - solar energy has been used commonly to describe many forms of potential such as passive technology that incorporates building orientation and solar thermal for water heating. Whereas Solar Power is commonly tied to production of electricity from photovoltaics.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50358
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A few years ago I started looking into solar energy. Just like you, I started
with an online search on how I could save money with
solar electricity.
I was shocked to see how much it cost to have
solar panels
installed at my house. The estimate I got was over $35,000 and the pay back time
for that was just way too long. I didn’t have that kind of money, not even
close. I was resigned to the idea of paying the electric company each and every
month until I met a friend who had a solution.
My friend explained that he was building his own solar panels and for just a
fraction of the cost of new retail solar panels. And he wasn’t alone.
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