Published by Australian Academy of Science
Useful sites | Harnessing direct solar energy – a progress report

Your Home (Australian Government)

• Solar hot water
  Provides technical details about domestic solar hot water systems.
  http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs43.htm
• Photovoltaic systems
  Provides technical details about domestic photovoltaic systems.
  http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs47.htm

Concentrating Solar Thermal Systems (Solar Thermal Group, Australian National University)

Provides technical descriptions of some solar thermal collecting systems.
http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEresearch/solarthermal/high_temp/concentrators/basics.php

Tapping into the sun (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

An article on photovoltaic cells with case studies.
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/old/16631.pdf

How Stuff Works, USA

• How solar cells work
  Examines how solar cells convert the sun's energy into electricity.
  http://www.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm

• How power grids work
  Looks at the equipment that brings electricity to your home.
  http://science.howstuffworks.com/power.htm/printable

Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts

• Solar thermal
  Lists technologies that use energy from the sun to produce electricity or heat.
  http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/recp/solar/index.html

• Renewable energy commercialisation in Australia
  Lists the renewable energy projects that are being commercialised in Australia, including solar thermal and solar photovoltaics projects.
  http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/recp/

• Solar cities: A vision of the future
  Outlines the Government’s Solar Cities project, in which seven Australian cities will participate.
  http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/solarcities/index.html

Map of operating renewable energy generators in Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Provides maps of proposed and operational renewable energy generators across Australia.
http://www.agso.gov.au/renewable/

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

• Solar future (Catalyst, 27 July 2006)
  Looks at a number of promising solar technologies being developed.
  http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1698520.htm

• Dye solar cell (Catalyst,18 November 2004)
  Describes the development of a new type of solar cell that does not use silicon.
  http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1241478.htm

• Sunrise or sunset? (transcript from Earthbeat, 24 April 2004)
  Discusses the current status in Australia of research into three types of solar energy: photovoltaics, solar thermal energy and solar hot water.
  http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s1093111.htm

Revisiting solar power's past (Solarenergy.com)

A 10-page history of attempts to convert solar radiation into mechanical power. (An article by Charles Smith from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review, July 1995.)
http://www.solarenergy.com/info_history.html