The Sun is an incredibly powerful source of energy. It can heat us up, burn our skin, light up the outdoors, and sustain all of life as we know it. Without the Sun, most plants would not be able to survive, which would deprive animals of their much-needed food and eventually hurt even those of us with carnivorous diets. If we could harness all the energy that the Sun pours on us daily for free, we could fulfill the entire world's power needs many times over! The infographic below illustrates the world's energy demand as well as the energy potential of solar power compared to various other renewable and nonrenewable energy sources [1]: Even after counting all the sunlight that is absorbed or reflected by our atmosphere and clouds, the Sun produces over 1400x the amount of energy per year than all the humans around the world consume during this same amount of time [1]. It is difficult to take advantage of this valuable resource for many reasons. However, the biggest roadbl...