solar battery - the answer to our energy problems?

While here on earth we discuss, seemingly ad infinitum, the pros and cons of alternative energy sources, there is not far from us — a mere 90.5 million miles (149.5 million kilometres) — a nuclear plant that has been going for the best part of 5000 million years and is estimated to go on for another 10 000 million years. The amount of energy this factory releases through nuclear fusion each second (it converts 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium at a temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius every second) is enough to meet our earthly needs for energy for a million years. That factory is, of course, our sun. solar battery solar battery elektor June 1985 Although we know that the sun radiates all that energy into space — only an infinitesimally small part of it is absorbed by the earth and other planets in our solar system — we do not really know how to harness it on a large scale. How can we convert the solar energy falling onto earth into electric energy for powering...