The solar panels gives "low grade" heat, that is, they generate low temperatures for the amount of heat needed in a day. In order to give "high grade" heat, strong enough to make water into high-pressure steam, which can then be used to turn electric generators, there must be another way. The concentrated beams of sunlight are collected in a solar furnace, which is just like a large magnifying glass. The solar furnace takes the sunlight from a large area and uses lenses and mirrors to focus the light into a very small area. The well-built solar furnaces have machines that face the mirrors and lenses to the sun all day. The solar furnaces can provide huge amounts of electricity and makes extremely high temperatures of over 6000 degrees Fahrenheit. .

             Solar energy is a near perfect source of energy, one where no pollution is related to it. It causes no poisonous gasses or destruction of rain forests. This renewable resource of energy comes from the sun. .

             Solar energy is the visible energy that is produced in the sun because of the constant nuclear fusion that happens there. The amount of energy at the outer edge of the earth"s atmosphere, is two calories per minute per cm squared. A calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. If we could use the energy that keeps hitting the earth for twenty-four hours, we could power New York for a year. But the solar cells that change the energy into electricity are so inefficient that it would take twenty-five years to pay for it"s self in output. There are many uses of solar energy. Some homes count on the power of the sun to heat their water. Other houses have flat plate collectors, which help in the heating of the house and water. .

             Since the movement of hot and cold air causes wind, wind energy can be a branch of solar energy. The same goes with tidal energy. And since the sun plays an important part in the water cycle, hydroelectric energy can be attributed to solar energy.