Considering that trees use sunlight to grow, and store that energy in the form of wood, then when we use that wood to heat with, couldn't we say that we heat with solar energy?
Isn't wood heat really solar energy?
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Since a cow stores plant energy, which is made from the sun, are they solar powered?
We're all solar powered. Unless you are one of the few things that lives off deep sea vents.
Matt
We're all solar powered. Unless you are one of the few things that lives off deep sea vents.
Matt
I have heard as hydroelectric dams as solar power too. After all, it's the suns energy (in the form of evaporation and rain) that got the water to the top of the dam.
I've always told kids, as we gather around the campfire (or wood stove), that the fire we are seeing is sunlight coming back out of the trees, and the warmth we feel from the fire is all those sunny summer days coming out of the wood.
Not to kill the spirit of the thread, but you could say the same for coal, oil and gas (unless you believe they are not biogenic). As Matt says, life is solar powered, and then so are the byproducts of life. But I'll go along with wood being many steps closer to the sun, in a time frame that can let me plant a tree and then later harvest and burn the same tree. You can't plant a coal field.
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