Next to hydroelectric power from water-impounding dams, solar power is the most promising form of renewable energy in the country. Solar power may be used in several ways: using solar energy to heat and cool homes; using focused sunlight to create steam which is then used to generate electricity; and, using solar cells to directly convert sunlight into electric power.

If solar power could be effectively harnessed for heating and cooling alone, that would mean substantial savings. Almost 25 percent of the U.S. energy budget is spent for the heating and cooling of buildings. It is easier to tap solar power for use in the home.

Most people have some idea on how solar power collection and storage works for heating water and homes. If you have driven down a street and seen homes with large, glass-looking panels on their roofs, you can bet the home is using solar power.

Other, less obvious, uses of solar power can be seen in homes equipped with sunrooms, large areas of glass in the main walls of the home, and so forth. Tile on the floors of homes with a lot of glass in the walls helps to catch and store the warmth from the sun.

One way of using solar power to heat a home is to use large windows facing south to capture the rays of the sun. The house can be combined with a heat collecting greenhouse. Heat-absorbing walls can hold the heat for slow release into the home long after the sun goes down. Creative use of air ducts and fans will help circulate the heat to the other rooms in the house.

Systems that tap solar power use black metal or plastic panels to absorb solar heat. You open the tap to circulate water through the panels and transfer heat into the building using pipes. Excess heat may be stored in the building as a tank of hot water. As heat is needed, a fan blows room air over the metal vanes attached to pipes through which solar-heated water is pumped through the tank.

Existing technologies are not yet able to harness solar power efficiently; costs are still quite high and many technical problems remain. Still, solar power usage is likely to expand considerably in the future. Solar energy does offer many benefits, especially to the environment, over energy that is generated from fossil fuels or nuclear sources.

Solar power is the most sustainable and easily captured form of energy. The energy supply is inexhaustible, and it is only our imagination that limits our capability to utilize it. The technology of harnessing solar power is still expensive, but it is fairly well developed and is likely to become cheaper and more efficient in the future.