Green building is all about implementing environmental and energy efficient strategies into a structure. It can be done on a small scale such as heating a pool or a large scale such as when building a skyscraper in the heart of New York City. Regardless of the situation, solar power is one of the popular renewable energy platforms being used today.

When it comes to solar power, most people understand the basics. Sunlight is converted into energy. For most people, this means solar panels are used to generate electricity. You know, those panels on the top of homes around your neighborhood. In reality, there are two different approaches to solar power. Both may be in your neighborhood, but one is hard to notice unless you know what you are looking for.

Active solar power is a concept practically everyone knows. This is the panel system. A set of panels is placed on a roof or backyard. The panels are made up of solar cells. The cells tend to have a silicone component in them. When sunlight strikes the silicone, it causes a chemical reaction. An electron is shot off the silicon creating a charge. This charge is gathered by wires in the solar cell and sent down the line to an adapter. The adapter converts the energy from AC to DC. It is then stored in a batter or fed into the electrical grid for your local utility company. Active solar power, however, is not the only game in town.

Passive solar is very popular in some parts of the country. Unless you have looked into what solar has to offer, you probably do not know about it. Passive solar involves no panel systems. There are no batteries to be charged. Nothing is fed into the grid system for the local utility. Instead, passive solar is used for heating purposes.

Have you ever locked your car in mall parking lot on a hot summer day? What happens when you open the door to get back in? A blast of furnace like heat comes rushing out when you open the door. When you sit down on the seat, the heat makes you do a little shuffling dance. This is the power of passive solar. The sun is used to heat structures.

Passive solar is a great way to heat a home. The idea is to position the home in such a way that the sun penetrates to the maximum extent possible through windows. Below the windows, you should install dark materials that absorb heat such as dark red bricks. During the day, the bricks heat up. As night falls, the bricks or other materials give off heat for hours to keep the home warm. Obviously, a full blown discussion of passive solar is a bit more complex, but this is the basic idea.

The next time someone mentions solar power to you, keep in mind there are two distinct approaches to using the energy in sunlight. Both work well, but perform very different purposes.