Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Solar technology is one of the many ways in which you can reduce your ecological footprint and cut costs on your utility bills at the same time. Currently, many companies, factories and even homes are powered by photovoltaic installations. Photovoltaics (PV) is a form of solar technology that produces electricity from sunlight without the use of batteries or other electrical devices. Photovoltaic panels or cells that are attached to the roof of a building collect the sunlight and turn it into electricity. These panels are fitted onto a roof individually, but the warmth of the sun helps to secure the panels to the roof making it weather-resistant. PV is rapidly gaining in popularity and is probably the fastest growing source of alternative energy.
Go see the Oakland University public demonstration project at 4000 Meadowbrook Drive. The university installed a photovoltaic roof on one of their student apartment buildings. The roof is split into four parts in order to face north, south, east and west to maximise exposure to sunlight. It collects light from the sun and turns it into energy and is also aesthetically pleasing to look at. The power that is not used by the photovoltaic apartment building is then fed to other buildings on the campus. In this way, just one building with the photovoltaic system is able to power several other buildings that have not installed this type of technology. On the other hand, on cloudy days when the sunlight is not adequate to power the building, the photovoltaic building is able to feed off the power from other buildings that it is ‘connected’ to. There is no electricity bill and never a shortage of hot water!
Find out more at www.oakland.edu/energy/solar.htm
(Adapted from New Destination B1)
