Question: In what year was the crystalline silicon solar cell constructed?
Answer: 1954

Question: What has happened to photovoltaic in the past 20 years?
Answer: evolved from a pure niche market of small scale applications towards becoming a mainstream electricity source

Question: What is a solar cell?
Answer: a device that converts light directly into electricity

Question: Who created the first solar cell?
Answer: Charles Fritts

Question: Who created the first solar cell using silver selenide in place of copper oxide?
Answer: Dr Bruno Lange

Question: Who created the crystalline silicon solar cell?
Answer: Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin

Question: In all the different CSP systems, concentrated sunlight is used to heat what?
Answer: a working fluid

Question: What do Concentrating Solar Power systems use?
Answer: lenses or mirrors and tracking systems

Question: What is the heat generated from a Concentrating Solar Power system used for?
Answer: a heat source for a conventional power plant

Question: What is one of the most developed Concentrating Solar Power technologies?
Answer: the Stirling dish

Question: What do Concentrating Solar Power technologies have in common?
Answer: a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight

Question: Socrate's what is a classic example of passive solar design?
Answer: Megaron House

Question: What is a common feature of passive solar architecture?
Answer: orientation relative to the Sun

Question: What is produced when the features of passive solar architecture are customized to the environment?
Answer: well-lit spaces that stay in a comfortable temperature range

Question: What is an example of passive solar design?
Answer: Socrates' Megaron House

Question: What kind of equipment can improve system performance?
Answer: pumps, fans and switchable windows

Question: UHI is an abbreviation of what?
Answer: Urban heat islands

Question: A program in Los Angeles believes that with $1 billion, city temperatures could be reduced by approximately how many degrees in Celsius?
Answer: 3

Question: What are the metropolitan areas with higher temperatures than the surrounding areas called?
Answer: Urban heat islands

Question: What materials absorb sunlight and create higher temperatures than natural materials?
Answer: asphalt and concrete

Question: What is a way to reduce the high temperatures created in urban heat islands?
Answer: paint buildings and roads white and plant trees

Question: During the Little Ice Age, what did English and French farmers use to increase collection of solar energy?
Answer: fruit walls

Question: Vinters have adopted solar technology to do what?
Answer: power grape presses

Question: Why do agriculture and horticulture seek to make the most use of the solar energy captured?
Answer: to optimize the productivity of plants

Question: What are some techniques used to improve crop production?
Answer: timed planting cycles, tailored row orientation, staggered heights between rows and the mixing of plant varieties

Question: What did French and English farmers do during the Little Ice Age to gain more solar energy?
Answer: employed fruit walls

Question: What was the purpose of the fruit walls built by French and English farmers?
Answer: acted as thermal masses and accelerated ripening by keeping plants warm

Question: When were the first greenhouses used?
Answer: Roman times

Question: In what century were the first modern greenhouses constructed?
Answer: the 16th

Question: What do greenhouses do with solar energy?
Answer: convert solar light to heat

Question: What is one purpose of a greenhouse?
Answer: enabling year-round production and the growth (in enclosed environments) of specialty crops

Question: What was one of the first uses of a greenhouse?
Answer: produce cucumbers year-round for the Roman emperor Tiberius

Question: Where were the first modern greenhouses built?
Answer: Europe

Question: What is the name of the solar powered car race held every two years?
Answer: The World Solar Challenge

Question: What was the winner of the World Solar Challenge's average speed in 2007 in km/h?
Answer: 90.87

Question: What is The World Solar Challenge?
Answer: a biannual solar-powered car race

Question: When was The World Solar Challenge started?
Answer: 1987

Question: What was the average speed of a winning solar powered car in 1987?
Answer: 67 kilometres per hour (42 mph)

Question: What was the average speed of a winning solar powered car by 2007?
Answer: 90.87 kilometres per hour (56.46 mph)

Question: What are some other similar car races that use solar powered vehicles?
Answer: The North American Solar Challenge and the planned South African Solar Challenge

Question: The first practical solar boat was constructed in what year?
Answer: 1975

Question: When was the first solar powered boat made?
Answer: 1975

Question: Who first crossed the Pacific ocean using a solar powered boat?
Answer: Kenichi Horie

Question: What was the name of the first solar powered boat that crossed the Atlantic ocean?
Answer: the sun21 catamaran

Question: What altitude did the Solar Riser reach in feet?
Answer: 40

Question: What is the name of the aircraft circling the globe in 2015 via solar power?
Answer: Solar Impulse

Question: When was the first unmanned flight by a solar powered plane made?
Answer: 1974

Question: When was the first solar powered manned flight made?
Answer: 29 April 1979

Question: When did the Solar Challenger cross the English Channel?
Answer: July 1981

Question: Where did Eric Scott Raymond fly using a solar powered plane in 1990?
Answer: California to North Carolina

Question: How long is the solar powered plane Solar Impulse able to remain in the air?
Answer: 36 hours

Question: What is a possible alternative to making carbon-based fuels from reduction of carbon dioxide?
Answer: hydrogen production from protons

Question: What process converts solar energy into storable and transportable fuels?
Answer: Solar chemical processes

Question: What solar process can be used to produce different fuels?
Answer: artificial photosynthesis

Question: What is the name of the process under development at the Weizmann Institute?
Answer: The Solzinc process

Question: The Solznic process produces what?
Answer: pure zinc

Question: What has been a main area of solar chemical research since the 1970s?
Answer: Hydrogen production technologies

Question: What is one of the thermochemical processes that has been explored besides electrolysis?
Answer: uses concentrators to split water into oxygen and hydrogen at high temperatures

Question: What is the name of the process being developed by the Weizmann Institute?
Answer: Solzinc process

Question: In what form do thermal mass systems store solar energy?
Answer: heat

Question: What is the system called that can store solar energy in the form of heat?
Answer: Thermal mass systems

Question: What are some of the materials used in thermal storage systems?
Answer: water, earth and stone

Question: What is something that can be accomplished by a thermal mass system?
Answer: reduce overall heating and cooling requirements

Question: Paraffin wax is an example of what kind of storage media?
Answer: thermal

Question: The first Glauber's salt heating system was first used where?
Answer: The "Dover House"

Question: What are some examples of phase change materials?
Answer: paraffin wax and Glauber's salt

Question: What are the approximate temperatures that can be delivered by phase change materials?
Answer: 64 °C or 147 °F

Question: What was the name of the heating system that first used Glauber's salt?
Answer: Dover House

Question: Why are salts good  for thermal storage?
Answer: they are low-cost, have a high specific heat capacity and can deliver heat at temperatures compatible with conventional power systems

Question: How much energy was the Solar Two able to store using salts?
Answer: 1.44 terajoules (400,000 kWh)