Has anyone heard about photon energy as the new energy source of the New Millenium?

Answer 1

A Photon is the basic energy unit of light, just like the quark charge is the basic unit of electrical charge.
Just like a quark's charge cannot be broken down further to smaller chunks of charge, the same goes for the energy of a photon.
In 1905 Albert Einstein showed that an electric current can be produced by shinning a bright (intense) light source on a metal. He later received a Nobel prize for this discovery (but for some reason not for his theory of relativity).
Since then light has been utilized for many electronic devices (Opto-electric devices), but as a power source we are still struggling with the problem of efficiently converting light into other types of energy (electrical, heat, chemical, etc...)
So in a sense photon energy is "old news", however there is still a lot to be studied about it.

Answer 2

I'll try to explain in short!
According to Einstein (or Planck im not sure), light is transferred in the form of discrete energy bundles or packets called photons.Every bundle contains a certain minimum amount of energy and each light wave consists of millions of such photons.
This energy of photons are now-a days put into use to produce electricity i.e. photoelectricity, or solar batteries etc. It has vast applications as it is cheap and easy to use (and anyways sun is a continuous source of energy).
Every light wave holds tremendous energy which can be put into good use as these days there is the fear of exhaustion of the non-renewable sources of energy (coal etc.).
Hence photon energy is the new age source of energy.

Answer 3

My brother-in-law has four solar panels on his farm. Does that count?