Solar power is tapped directly from the sun; which has an intensity on a clear day of 1,240 W / m^2 on the ground with the sun directly overhead. Many ways of tapping solar power have been developed.
Invented by Horace de Saussure, a Swiss naturalist experimenting as early as 1767, [solar box cookers]? trap the sun's power in an insulated box; primary for cooking and also for pasturization and fruit canning.