Five Good & Easy Examples of Solar Energy

Harnessing the Sun for Power

• Light from the sun heats the earth and warms it. Our forebears would have recognized the effects of that light on their bodies and the things around them as heat. They may have enjoyed the warmth of a rock giving off its store of energy, but they certainly wouldn't have known how to store and direct its use. The modern solar cell -- also called a photovoltaic cell -- stores sunlight and then through a process whereby protons are converted to free electrons, redirects it as a current that can be tapped for specific uses, such as powering a calculator.

Sunlight to Steam Power

• In much the same way that light can be harnessed, solar heat can also be harnessed for power. In that case, when the sun hits a surface, instead of manipulating the energy to create currents, the rays are focused onto mirrors, concentrated and redirected to a heat-absorbent substance -- usually directly concentrated upon columns of water, but sometimes upon other substances such as sodium chloride (salt), which melts and is then used to heat the water indirectly. The superheated water creates steam -- which in turn converts directly to electricity through turbines.

Photosynthesis -- Sunlight to Food

• The process by which plants use sunlight to produce food -- in the form of sugars -- that helps them grow is called photosynthesis. The production of chlorophyll requires the aid of biological solar cells to process sunlight -- hence the cells in plant leaves are tiny solar factories. Without this conversion of light energy to chemical energy, we would not have oxygen or food.

Magnifying Light for Fire

• If you have ever positioned a magnifying glass over a piece of paper or bit of tinder to start a fire, you have employed solar energy. The glass magnifies the power of the sun̵7;s rays and concentrates what would otherwise be diffused as negligible light and heat into a useful tool.

Solar Thermal Energy

• The sun produces heat as well as light -- as you will know if you̵7;ve ever had occasion to sit on a hot car seat in summer, suffered a sunburn or got burned by an unexpectedly hot jet of water from a garden hose left lying in the sun. Accidental thermal heat can be annoying, but that same thermal energy can be harnessed productively to make a solar cooker, hot water heater or a passive solar-collection system that stores energy in walls and floors and releases the energy back as heat when the sun goes down.