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Solar power in the garden, one of my favorite areas of the environmental revolution. As sunlight is abundantly available, more and more ingenious ways of using and harnessing the suns rays are coming onto the market. A few of the most popular ideas are listed below;

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Solar panels, lights and water features

A virtual plethora of these exists on the markets that it is impossible to list all the different types here.  

Solar panels exist in all shapes and sizes.  They are used in many applications from powering caravans to kits to convert your petrol lawn mower.

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For your garden, the simplest and one of the most popular ways of using the suns rays is in lighting and water fountains.  These gadgets can store energy during the day and use it to power fountains or lights during the night-time hours.

However, my first encounter with the solar powered garden lights showed that the amount of light these can produce can act as a guide but is not as useful as you might require. This was mainly because they were on permanently, so the energy ran out quickly.  Now these are much improved and can be useful if they store the energy to be used for short intervals such as for sheds and security lights, or simply lights for the garden table which only need to be on for the time taken to have a romantic dinner.

Fountains for your garden pond or a birdbath are also a great idea.  Obviously, it will work better when it is a bright sunny day, which is also when you are most likely to be in the garden to enjoy it.