The world is green. Just look outsideóunless you live in the Sahara desert, the Canadian arctic or in a submarine, you're bound to see green. All of this greenery, or vegetation if you prefer, is nurtured by a single energy source: the sun. In fact, it's not a stretch to claim that the Earth itself is solar-powered. Sure, it's a blue planet and the oceans cover 71 percent of the globe, but in that ocean are billions upon billions of growing, photosynthesizing algae, which provide a lot of the oxygen we need to survive. Thanks algae.

So if the world is solar-powered, why do we still insist on drilling, excavating and blasting our way down to the inky, sludgy and sooty stuff to fuel our economy? The answer is complex, but part of the problem is that a lot of these fossil fuels provide a lot more punch than we can currently get from the sun. Unfortunately, you can't power a Boeing 747, a transatlantic ocean liner, or even your Toyota Prius on solar rays. Yet.

The primary method for harvesting solar energy is through the use of photovoltaic cells. The term photovoltaic, broken down, simply means light (photo) and electricity (voltaic). Taken together it literally means making electricity from light. Most people are at least familiar with photovoltaics in the form of dark gray rectangular panels bolted onto roofs. But how does this alchemy work? What funky magic enables this gray metallic panel to power my water heater or heat my swimming pool? To help understand how electricity is harvested from the sun, we must first understand a little bit about what materials go into a solar panel.

Believe it or not, solar panels are made from the beach. Yes that's right, the same sand on our beaches is the main ingredient of a solar cell. Sand, which is silicon, is first placed into a mold and heated to very high temperatures. Then the silicon is put through a special process, transforming it into a crystalline structure. During this process different impurities are added, such as phosphorous. The added impurities, along with the newly formed crystalline structure, are what give the solar panel its magical capability to produce electricity.

So how do we get electricity from sand? Put simply, electricity is the free flowing of electrons. The entire goal of a solar panel, its very reason for existing, is to generate a free-flow of electrons. It does this by converting energy from light, from the same sunglow warmness you feel whilst lounging on a silicon beach. Inside the panel the sunlight creates an electron dance party. Think of it as a disco party in which, suddenly, a free supply of champagne has been added. Things inevitably heat up. The chemical structure of the photovoltaic cell absorbs the light energy, exciting electrons to move, or boogie if you prefer, down the panel. Just like our disco dancers have become enticed to flood the dance floor, the solar mojo has induced our previously reluctant electrons to dance down the panel. This creates a free-flow that is harnessed by two terminals that provide the electricity to the device of your choosing, like a bar cooler filled with champagne.

The advantages provided by solar energy are numerous. Besides cooling champagne, solar energy is freely available, has little to no environmental impact and is cost effective in the long-term. Even better, the increased use of solar energy cancels out the need to rely on fossil fuels and can decrease thousands of tons of greenhouse gases each year, helping to counter global climate change. It turns out money doesn't grow on trees, but it does fall from the sky.