How is solar power processed to produce energy?
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"Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. When sunlight strikes a PV cell, electrons are dislodged, creating an electrical current."
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If you want complete info this is the site, http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm
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The answer depends on how big or how much each solar panel produces.  But you definetly need at least 1,200 Watts. You can either try to produce the energy Chemically or Mechanically.  Chemically you need Photo Electric Panels Large enough to produce 1,200 watts.  Mechanically you would use mirrors to focus the suns rays onto a boiler to create steam and then turn a turbine generator.
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Solar Cells\n\nSolar cells (as the name implies) are designed to convert (at least a portion of) available light into electrical energy. They do this without the use of either chemical reactions or moving parts.\n\nHistory\nThe development of the solar cell stems from the work of the French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel in 1839. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution; he observed that voltage developed when light fell upon the electrode. About 50 years later, Charles Fritts constructed the first true solar cells using junctions formed by coating the semiconductor selenium with an ultrathin, nearly transparent layer of gold. Fritts's devices were very inefficient, transforming less than 1 percent of the absorbed light into electrical energy.\n\nBy 1927 another metalÐsemiconductor-junction solar cell, in this case made of copper and the semiconductor copper oxide, had been demonstrated. By the 1930s both the selenium cell and the copper oxide cell were being employed in light-sensitive devices, such as photometers, for use in photography. These early solar cells, however, still had energy-conversion efficiencies of less than 1 percent. This impasse was finally overcome with the development of the silicon solar cell by Russell Ohl in 1941. In 1954, three other American researchers, G.L. Pearson, Daryl Chapin, and Calvin Fuller, demonstrated a silicon solar cell capable of a 6-percent energy-conversion efficiency when used in direct sunlight. By the late 1980s silicon cells, as well as those made of gallium arsenide, with efficiencies of more than 20 percent had been fabricated. In 1989 a concentrator solar cell, a type of device in which sunlight is concentrated onto the cell surface by means of lenses, achieved an efficiency of 37 percent due to the increased intensity of the collected energy. In general, solar cells of widely varying efficiencies and cost are now available.\n\nStructure\nModern solar cells are based on semiconductor physics -- they are basically just P-N junction photodiodes with a very large light-sensitive area. The photovoltaic effect, which causes the cell to convert light directly into electrical energy, occurs in the three energy-conversion layers.\n\n\nDiagram courtesy U.S. Department of Energy\nThe first of these three layers necessary for energy conversion in a solar cell is the top junction layer (made of N-type semiconductor ). The next layer in the structure is the core of the device; this is the absorber layer (the P-N junction). The last of the energy-conversion layers is the back junction layer (made of P-type semiconductor).\n\nAs may be seen in the above diagram, there are two additional layers that must be present in a solar cell. These are the electrical contact layers. There must obviously be two such layers to allow electric current to flow out of and into the cell. The electrical contact layer on the face of the cell where light enters is generally present in some grid pattern and is composed of a good conductor such as a metal. The grid pattern does not cover the entire face of the cell since grid materials, though good electrical conductors, are generally not transparent to light. Hence, the grid pattern must be widely spaced to allow light to enter the solar cell but not to the extent that the electrical contact layer will have difficulty collecting the current produced by the cell. The back electrical contact layer has no such diametrically opposed restrictions. It need simply function as an electrical contact and thus covers the entire back surface of the cell structure. Because the back layer must be a very good electrical conductor, it is always made of metal.\n\nOperation\nSolar cells are characterized by a maximum Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) at zero output current and a Short Circuit Current (Isc) at zero output voltage. Since power can be computed via this equation:\n\nP = I * V\nThen with one te
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Nuclear fusion is what you are talking about.  Basically smaller atoms (hydrogen for example) are smashed together under high energy to form larger atoms (helium for example).  In the process, a small amount of energy is given off.  This is the process that powers the sun, and if we could harness it, it would make a great source of electricity.  Anyway they have experimental fusion reactors, they just take in more energy then they give out making using them as a power source pointless.  They're working on that though.  Someday hopefully they can make a fusion reactor that gives off more energy then it takes in.
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http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/solar.htm\n\nThis is a favorite source of future energy for many people, comforted by the thought that it is unlimited. But, quite the contrary is true. The Sun will exist for a long time, but at any given place on the Earth's surface the amount of sunlight received is limited--only so much is received. And at night, or with overcast skies, or in high latitudes where winter days are short and for months there may be no daylight at all, the sunlight received is very limited at times. Direct conversion of sunlight to electricity by solar cells is a promising field, but the amount of electricity that can be generated by that method is not great compared with demand. The conversion efficiency is low, about 12 percent with present technology.\n\nSolar energy in quantity requires huge installations. It has been estimated that an area of 60 square miles in relatively clear central Oregon would have to be covered with solar cells in order to meet the present electric needs of that State. About 10% of the cells have to be replaced each year. But the big problem is how to store significant amounts of electricity when the Sun is not available to produce it. That problem remains unsolved. The statement that "solar energy will not make next century's electricity" is probably right. And the end product is electricity--a very limited replacement for oil.
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STEAM TURBINE IS THE BEST EXAMPLE\n in this process steam rotates the turbine convert heat anergy to mechanical energy, and then mechanical turbine rotates the dynamo which creates electricity.
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You can first buy the solar panels and then you get the plans from the Internet and you build such items as solar powered cars, water distillation station, etc..  The sky is the limit with solar power!!
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Solar Power:\n\nEnergy from the sun's radiation converted into heat or electricity.\n\nwww.wisconsinpublicservice.com/farm/terms.asp\n\n1) Solar Energy:\n\nElectricity produced from the sun’s radiation.\n\nwww.fplsafetyworld.com/glossary/\n\n2) Solar Energy:\n\nenergy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy; "the amount of energy falling on the earth is given by the solar constant, but very little use has been made of solar energy"\n\n\nhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/solar+energy
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This is a process where an individual or company generates electric power for their own use and sells any surplus to the power company. \n\nA  fairly popular cogeneration arrangement is the use of a gas turbine driven electric generator with waste heat recovery from the hot exhaust gases. This waste heat can be used in many ways from heating buildings to making steam and using the steam to generate more electric power.
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Assuming you mean photoelectric and not just solar heat cells: \nThe material (silicon ore = sand) is not the problem, the trouble is the apparatus needed to electrolyse and purify the material, and then apply it to suitable carriers.
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Power from fuel cells,\n\nGreenery all around\n\nInstant CO2 recycling\n\nInstant Sewage treatment.\n\nWhat else ????????????????
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The power output is smaller than the power input as most of the energy usually has been converted to heat in the process...
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Ok you need a bowl of water and the sun. The energy is trapped (at least temporarily) in the water, as heat.
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Either directly through thermoelectric materials or indirectly by using the heat to produce motion and using that to generate electricity.
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I would guess the sun would be the energy in SOLAR powered anything. Solar = sun
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Process by which organisms use sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars.