• Electricity generation
• Photovoltaics (solar cells)
• Heat engines (steam and Stirling)
• Solar updraft towers
• Hot air panels with blowers
• Hot water panels using pumps
• Hybrid solar lighting (use of mirrors that track the sun)
• Vehicles (cars, planes, boats, solar balloons, and spacecraft)

• Hot water panels using thermosiphoning
• Solar chimneys (for cooling)
• Solar architecture
• Water purification (through distillation)
• Greenhouses
• Daylighting (clerestory windows, light tubes, skylights, etc.)
• Cooking (through concentrated sunlight)
• Photochemical processes (such as the generation of hydrogen from water using high temperatures created from solar concentrators)

• First solar cell was built in 1883 by Charles Fritts, who coated the semiconductor selenium with an extremely thin layer of gold. 1% efficient.
• Bell Labs: First silicon cell in 1954. 6% efficient.
• Current record: 42.8%.

Simple explanation

1. Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semiconducting materials, such as silicon.
2. Electrons (negatively charged) are knocked loose from their atoms, allowing them to flow through the material to produce electricity. Due to the special composition of solar cells, the electrons are only allowed to move in a single direction. The complementary positive charges that are also created (like bubbles) are called holes and flow in the direction opposite of the electrons in a silicon solar panel.
3. An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct current (DC) electricity.

• Batteries
• Hydrogen
• Thermal mass
• Thermal energy storage
• Phase-change materials (paraffin, Glauber's salt, molten salts, etc.)
• Pumping water to a higher reservoir
• Compressed air
• Flywheels
• Superconducting coils