How is Solar Energy created? (leave source please)?

Question

please hurry today is Mon.26th 2007 6:22 please respond in 10 minutes

Answer 1

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chap...

We can also use solar energy to make electricity. The process is called photovoltaics. If you have a solar-powered watch or calculator, you’re using photovoltaics!

In 1954, scientists at Bell Telephone discovered that silicon (an element found in sand) created an electric charge when it was exposed to lots of sunlight. Just a few years later, silicon chips were used to help power space satellites.

Today, more than 10,000 American families get all of their electricity from solar power. And silicon from just one ton of sand, used in photovoltaic cells, could produce as much electricity as burning 500,000 tons of coal.

You might be wondering why we don’t use solar electricity all the time. Solar power systems make a different kind of electricity than big power plants do, so different wiring is needed – and that can be expensive.

There are a few big solar power plants in the United States, mostly in California. It’s difficult and expensive to make a lot of electricity using photovoltaics – the panels cost a lot, and a lot of open land is needed.