Thermal energy

Unlike other technologies, whose energy must be consumed at the time of its generation, solar thermal is a renewable technology with storage capacity, capable of supplying electricity to the grid even in hours without sunlight.

Thermal energy can be acquired through different means such as:

• The joule effect is when a conductor circulates electric current and the kinetic energy of the electrons is transformed as a result of the shocks that the electric charges of the body experience.

• Friction as a consequence of different chemical or mechanical processes.

• Nature and the sun.

• The nuclear reaction that can be caused by fission (when it originates in the atomic nucleus) or by fusion (when several atomic nuclei have a similar charge, they unite to give rise to a heavier nucleus with the release of a large amount of energy).

• Exothermic reactions through the combustion of some fuel.

By putting two bodies in contact, one hot and the other colder, it can be seen that the colder one heats up and vice versa, the hotter one cools.

The reason for this event is that heat is observed based on the movement shown by the particles that make up the object in question.

In this case, the movement of the particles typical of the hot object gradually stops while in the cold body the reverse effect occurs; of course, this process is evidenced at the microscopic level.

To establish an analogy, one can refer to the behavior observed by two colliding billiard balls, one at rest and one in motion; in this case, the moving ball will move more slowly while the other will begin to move.

Thermal energy is the form of energy that intervenes in calorific phenomena.

When two bodies at different temperatures come into contact, the hot communicates energy to the cold; the type of energy that is transferred from one body to another as a consequence of a difference in temperature is precisely thermal energy.

The idea that the kinetic theory introduces about temperature by defining it as a measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules, thus makes it possible to explain why heat transfers always occur in the direction from higher to lower temperature.

• Hydraulic energy
• Mechanical energy
• Sound energy
• Nuclear energy
• Wind power
• Radiant energy
• Light energy
• Kinetic energy
• Chemical energy
• Nonrenewable energy
• Thermal energy
• Renewable energy
• Electric power
• Potential energy
• Solar energy