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the sun..
Unfortunately its collection and storage can be both
difficult and expensive. Some form of storage is necessary
because the sun’s rays do not reach us on cloudy days or at night.
Never the less, solar energy is now an economic and practicable
solution and is widely used in many countries.
It is possible to convert solar energy directly to electricity by
the use of photoelectric cells but for most practicable purposes
this is too expensive a way to produce electricity. Today’s solar
energy systems are of two main types, based on the flat plate
collector and the focusing collector. The flat plate collector is
simpler and cheaper. In its simplest form, the sun’s rays fall onto a
panel. Pipes carrying water are embedded in the panel. The sun
heats the water, which is then available for use.
Modern flat plate collectors are carefully designed to absorb
the maximum possible amount of energy and to prevent heat loss
to the surroundings. They are mainly used for the provision of
domestic hot water. They are commercially available and are in use
in many countries including Australia, Japan, Cyprus, Brazil and
Israel.

B. Look up the dictionary for the following words:

exhaust perpetual expensive ray pipe

fuel amount reach available embedded

source charge cell flat surroundings

C. Find the terminology you have come across in the main text.

EXERCISE 10 Make a précis of the main text using the
technique of exercise 5.

EXERCISE 11 Write an annotation of the text “Solar
energy”.

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