Solar Basics
Solar Glossary G - H
- Gallium Arsenide
- A compound used to make certain types of solar photovoltaic cells.
- Glazing
- A term used for the transparent or translucent material in a window. This material (i.e. glass, plastic films, coated glass) is used for admitting solar energy and light through windows.
- Transparent or translucent material (glass or plastic) used to admit light and/or to reduce heat loss; used for building windows, skylights, or greenhouses, or for covering the aperture of a solar collector.
- Global Insolation (or Solar Radiation)
- The total diffuse and direct insolation on a horizontal surface, averaged over a specified period of time.
- Greenhouse Gases
- Those gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, tropospheric ozone, methane, and low level ozone that are transparent to solar radiation, but opaque to long wave radiation, and which contribute to the greenhouse effect.
- Ground Reflection
- Solar radiation reflected from the ground onto a solar collector.
- Heat Absorbing Window Glass
- A type of window glass that contains special tints that cause the window to absorb as much as 45% of incoming solar energy, to reduce heat gain in an interior space. Part of the absorbed heat will continue to be passed through the window by conduction and reradiation.
- Heat Gain
- The amount of heat introduced to a space from all heat producing sources, such as building occupants, lights, appliances, and from the environment, mainly solar energy.
- Heliochemical Process
- The utilization of solar energy through photosynthesis.
- Heliostat
- A device that tracks the movement of the sun; used to orient solar concentrating systems.
- Heliothermal
- Any process that uses solar radiation to produce useful heat.
- Heliothermic
- Site planning that accounts for natural solar heating and cooling processes and their relationship to building shape, orientation, and siting.
- Heliothermometer
- An instrument for measuring solar radiation.
- Hemispherical Bowl Technology
- A solar energy concentrating technology that uses a linear receiver that tracks the focal area of a reflector or array of reflectors.
- Hybrid System
- A renewable energy system that includes two different types of technologies that produce the same type of energy; for e.g., a wind turbine and a solar photovoltaic array combined to meet a power demand.
About the list of terms on this page.
The U.S. Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Home Page is a great starting point for learning about renewable energy methods and sources. In it's effort to educate the consumer, the website provides calculators and guides of all kinds to assist the consumer in saving money, saving energy and making the most of the renewable energy sources available. The solar energy terms and definitions on our glossary pages were extracted from the extensive DOE EERE glossary of terms about all aspects and forms of energy.