It’s obvious that we can use the sunlight to expand helium inside a transparent piston, and use the expansion to lift a tank of water!
Why people don’t steal my idea?
Someone please steal my idea!
Don’t you see? The best way to generate electricity from the sun is using the sunlight to heat some helium gas, so the gas will expand and drive up some pistons, and the pistons will lift a tank of water.
That will give gravitational potential energy to the water in the tank.
And how do we harness the gravitational potential energy of water and turn it into electricity? That’s pretty obvious: creating a micro “hydroelectric plant” with a turbine running from the flow of water coming down from the tank.
This is an excellent way to accumulate the energy from the sun to be used to generate electricity at night, when people arrive at home from work and turn on the lights and the TV.
Just put helium gas in a transparent chamber, so the sunlight will heat the helium, and the helium will expand and drive up some pistons, and the pistons will lift the water tank.