What are different ways we can use solar energy?
A few questions back I said that there were endless ways to use solar energy. That’s true, but, to make things easier to think about, all those ways can be divided into two basic categories. First, we can use the sun’s energy to heat things–our houses, the water in our houses, the food in a solar cooker, and so on. This is called solar thermal energy. (Thermal means heat, so solar thermal energy just means heat energy from the sun.) The second basic way we can use solar energy is to turn light from the sun directly into electricity, using solar panels. This is usually called photovoltaics, and we?ll talk more about it in the next question. 5. How do solar electric panels work? Solar electric panels are made up of something called silicon, the same thing that makes up sand. There is more silicon on the planet than almost anything else. Even though you can find silicon almost everywhere, making a solar panel is difficult and expensive. The silicon has to be heated to super high temperat
