Question: what is the most powerful thing a solar cell can heat ????????

Matt Carnie answered on 19 Jun 2013:

The type of solar cells I work on are called photovoltaics. This means that they create electricity from sunlight. So they can only be used to heat things if the electrical energy is converted back into heat energy. Boiling water in a kettle would be a good example of this. How much energy you can produce depends on the power of the sunlight, how much of that energy is converted to electricity (its efficiency) and the area of the solar panels you have.

Other types of solar energy use huge mirrors to reflect the suns raise onto a boiler. The heat from the reflected rays heats water to super-heated steam which drives turbines like you would find in a ordinary power-station.