Superpowered Sun
Did you know that almost all of the energy in every food chain starts with the sun? Plants use sunlight to perform photosynthesis, which creates oxygen and sugar. Animals eat the plants to gain energy from those sugars. Then other animals eat those animals, and so on. Solar energy, or energy from the sun, is used in much more than food chains. Humans have used solar energy directly for thousands of years. Think of a window that lights up a room without a lightbulb. Or a magnifying glass that can burn objects underneath it if left in the sun. These are simple inventions that harness the sun's power.But windows and magnifying glasses use light and heat without changing them into other types of energy. The sun gives off more energy in a second than humans have used since the beginning of time. Not all of it reaches Earth. Even still, the amount of solar energy Earth gets in an hour is greater than all the electricity humans use in a whole year. How can we turn our superpowered star's energy into electricity?Solar panels are made of a material called silicon. When sun hits them, it makes tiny particles called electrons move around. This movement creates an electrical current, or flow. That electricity can then be used to power anything from a phone charger to a calculator to a car.There are large solar farms in places like California, Arizona, and Nevada. Fields of solar panels shift to track the sun across the sky. As solar panels become more affordable, more buildings install them right on their roofs to help cut energy costs. And don't worry about clouds! Most solar panels are built with batteries attached. These batteries store energy from sunny days that can be used on rainy ones.What does the word harness mean in this passage?straps or ropesmake use oftie togetherrestrain; hold back
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