Renewable energy often referred to as clean energy, comes from natural sources or processes that are constantly replenished. For example, sunlight and wind keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.

While renewable energy is often thought of as a new technology, harnessing nature’s power has long been used for heating, transportation, lighting, and more. The wind has powered boats to sail the seas and windmills to grind grain. The sun has provided warmth during the day and helped kindle fires to last into the evening. But over the past 500 years or so, humans increasingly turned to cheaper, dirtier energy sources, such as coal and fracked gas.

Now that we have innovative and less-expensive ways to capture and retain wind and solar energy, renewables are becoming a more important power source, accounting for more than 12 percent of U.S. energy generation. The expansion in renewables is also happening at scales large and small, from giant offshore wind farms to rooftop solar panels on homes, which can sell power back to the grid. Even entire rural communities (in Alaska, Kansas, and Missouri) are relying on renewable energy for heating and lighting.

Next, let’s take a look at how to use solar energy：

Solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells are made from silicon or other materials that transform sunlight directly into electricity. Distributed solar systems generate electricity locally for homes and businesses, either through rooftop panels or community projects that power entire neighborhoods. Solar farms can generate enough power for thousands of homes, using mirrors to concentrate sunlight across acres of solar cells. Floating solar farms—or “floatovoltaics”—can be an effective use of wastewater facilities and bodies of water that aren’t ecologically sensitive.

Solar supplies nearly 3 percent of U.S. electricity generation (some sources estimate it will reach nearly 4 percent in 2022). But 46 percent of all new generating capacity came from solar in 2021.

Solar energy systems don’t produce air pollutants or greenhouse gases, and as long as they are responsibly sited, most solar panels have few environmental impacts beyond the manufacturing process.

In our daily life, we could choose portable power stations that cost less than solar panels on roofs.

And choosing a suitable solar panel is also very important for us to match a portable power station when we take it for camping outside or charging.