The sun is the ultimate source of all the energy and fuels that we use today and has been producing energy for billions of years. Solar radiation has been utilised by humans for thousands of years as a source of warmth as well as to dry meat, fruit and cereals. Over time, mankind created ways to harness solar energy for electricity and heat.
The solar oven is an illustration of an early solar energy harvesting apparatus (a box for collecting and absorbing sunlight). During a trip to Africa in the 1830s, British astronomer John Herschel used a sun oven to cook food. Nowadays, a wide range of technology is used by people to gather solar radiation and transform it into usable thermal energy for a number of applications.
We heat with solar thermal energy systems. Water for usage in swimming pools, residences, high-temperature fluids is used in solar thermal power plants. Systems that use solar photovoltaics turn sunlight into power Solar cells, often known as photovoltaic (PV) devices, convert sunlight directly into electricity. Calculators, watches, and other tiny electrical gadgets can all be powered by tiny PV cells. An entire house's worth of electricity can be generated by the configurations of numerous solar cells in PV panels and numerous PV panels in PV arrays. Many acres of huge PV power plants' worth of arrays can generate enough electricity for thousands of houses.
