All articles A–Z

Solar power in India

Solar power in India, also known as solar energy in India, grew from 2.82 GW of installed capacity in 2014 to 105.65 GW by March 2025.

Solar power in Japan

Solar power in Japan is the generation of electricity from photovoltaic systems, which grew rapidly after the 2012 feed-in tariff and supplied 9.2% of Japan's electricity in FY 2022.

Solar power in the United States

Solar power in the United States, also called solar energy in the United States, converts sunlight into electricity through photovoltaic panels and solar-thermal plants, supplying about 7% of utility-scale generation in 2025.

Solar power tower

A solar power tower is a concentrating solar power plant whose heliostat mirrors focus sunlight on a receiver atop a central tower to generate electricity.

Solar process heat

Solar process heat, also called Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP), is heat from solar thermal collectors supplied to industrial processes below about 250 °C.

Solar prominence

A solar prominence is a large, bright structure of cool, dense plasma extending from the Sun's surface into the hot corona, held by magnetic fields; many erupt, driving space weather.

Solar radius

The solar radius is the radius of the Sun, referred to its visible surface and about 695,700 km; it is also a standard unit for star sizes.

Solar sail

A solar sail, also known as a light sail, is a spacecraft propulsion method in which a large reflective membrane is pushed by sunlight pressure, giving propellant-free thrust.

Solar salt

Solar salt is a molten 60/40 blend of sodium and potassium nitrate used in concentrating solar power plants to store heat for generating electricity after sunset.

Solar shingles

Solar shingles, also called solar roof tiles, are photovoltaic cells that look and function like conventional roofing materials while generating electricity, commercially available since 2005 and costing 60 to 190 percent more than solar panels.

Solar sibling

A solar sibling is a star thought to have formed alongside the Sun in the same birth cluster from the same molecular cloud about 4.6 billion years ago.

Solar Star

Solar Star, formerly Antelope Valley Solar Projects, is a 579 MW photovoltaic power plant near Rosamond, California, the world's largest when completed in June 2015.

Solar still

A solar still, a form of solar distillation, is a device that purifies saline or contaminated water using only sunlight, collecting condensed vapor as fresh water.

Solar storm of 2015 March

The solar storm of March 2015, known as the St. Patrick's Day storm, was a severe G4 geomagnetic storm that struck Earth on 17 March 2015.

Solar System

The Solar System, also called our solar system, is the Sun and everything orbiting it: eight planets, hundreds of moons, and billions of smaller bodies.

Solar System Ambassadors

Solar System Ambassadors is a NASA volunteer program run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in which enthusiasts nationwide give free public talks about space missions.

Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

The Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is a NASA institute funding multi-institutional research on the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and the moons of Mars.

Solar System in fiction

Solar System in fiction: real planets, moons, and asteroids as science-fiction settings, from Kircher's 1656 Grand Tour and Verne's 1865 Moon cannon through Heinlein's golden-age future history and the post-probe shift to interstellar settings.

Solar telescope

A solar telescope is an optical telescope specialized for observing the Sun, managing intense heat and light while resolving fine structure in the solar atmosphere.

Solar thermal collector

A solar thermal collector, or solar heat collector, is a device that converts sunlight into useful heat for hot water, space heating, and industrial processes.

Solar thermal energy

Solar thermal energy, also called solar thermal electric power, is heat captured from sunlight, used for water heaters, industry, and concentrating power plants, unlike photovoltaics.

Solar thermochemical carbon dioxide splitting

Solar thermochemical carbon dioxide splitting is a two-step redox process in which concentrated sunlight drives a metal oxide to split CO2 into carbon monoxide and oxygen without electricity.

Solar thermochemical fuel production

Solar thermochemical fuel production uses concentrated sunlight to split water and CO2 into hydrogen or syngas, which can be converted into drop-in fuels like kerosene.

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production (STCH, also called solar thermal water splitting) makes hydrogen with heat from concentrated sunlight, cycling metal oxides between reduction and steam re-oxidation to split water.

Solar thermophotovoltaic system

A solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) system converts sunlight to electricity via a heated intermediate emitter, whose thermal radiation a photovoltaic cell converts, reshaping the spectrum to cut losses.

Solar Throat Slashed

Solar Throat Slashed (French: Soleil cou coupé) is a 1948 collection of 72 poems by the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, published in Paris by K éditeur.

Solar time

Solar time, also called sun time, is timekeeping based on the Sun's position, in apparent form, which a sundial reads, and mean form, which underlies modern civil time zones.

Solar tracker

A solar tracker is a mounting system that orients PV panels toward the sun as it moves, increasing energy yield by up to 27 percent over fixed arrays.