Revered by ancient cultures as a deity, the sun has a growing band of modern worshippers who believe that its abundant power can solve our dependence on fossil fuels.
From those behind developing photovoltaic technology - the means to turn the sun's energy into electricity - to governments providing alternative energy subsidies, more people are warming to the idea that solar power is a solution, not of tomorrow, but today.
In a single day the Earth's deserts receive as much energy as the world needs for the whole year. Capturing that energy is just one challenge. Making it affordable and accessible is another.
Innovation in solar cells and their application are happening apace.
Germany, a country not known for its sunny skies, is the world leader in producing solar panels and producing energy. It currently boasts 55 percent of the world's total photovoltaic capacity.
If Germany is proving that photovoltaic power can be effectively used as an alternative energy source, it is because of a supportive government. A law passed in 2000 meant that all energy companies had to purchase a portion of energy from renewable sources.
And it has helped spawn a booming market, which should make other governments sit up and take note. Solar industry analysts at Credit Lyonnais predict it to grow from $7bn in 2004 to $40bn by 2010 and the price of solar cell production to fall as their efficiency increases.
More than just solar panels
It is not just solar panels that are powering the dawn of what many advocates hope will be the solar century.
Europe's first solar thermal power station opened in April 2007 outside Seville, Spain. Over 600 mirrors are used to reflect light to a point on a 40-storey high tower, which is then concentrated to heat a liquid to a phenomenal temperature. The energy generated from it is enough to power 6,000 homes.
Even greater plans include capturing the solar potential of the world's deserts. It is a vision held by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a group of scientists, engineers, politicians and business people. They believe it could be a means to create a clean energy policy and sustainable future, plus provide an economic boost to an underdeveloped region.
According to Gerhard Knies, co-founder of TREC the so-called sun belt of North Africa and the Middle East could be developed to provide solar power to Europe and in exchange develop a new source of income for those countries.
"From concentrated solar power plants and transmission lines from desert regions to the populated regions of the world, we are ready to go. It could be operational in 10 to 15 years, but I'm afraid it will take longer because there are resistance to these changes."
"You cannot change the global energy system overnight. It will take 30 to 50 years to make solar energy the main source of energy, but we have to start now," Knies told CNN.
"While we can't rewrite the past, many believe that if the solar industry had received the same wide-spread backing and subsidies as nuclear power had, we would be at least 20 years further along the road to wide-spread, clean efficient power," Ian Byrne deputy director of the UK's National Energy Foundation told CNN.
Warming to off grid solutions
However some question whether solar technology is a solution for mainstream grid power or is better served as solving small-scale local problems and freeing homes from being reliant on a central power grid.
New materials are being researched that could kick-start the domestic application of solar power.
A Swiss start-up company Flisom has been developing a form of solar cell, made of a thin, ultra-light material, capable of being mass produced in large rolls rather than in sections like normal glass-based solar materials.
But currently costs of both the application of domestic solar technology and the energy they produce are still higher than from fossil fuel or nuclear sources.
Currently solar power is around three to four times more expensive compared to conventional sources.
"Solar power has more potential to be a small scale solution," said Byrne.
"It's not like wind power where you need space to site a turbine or wind farm, solar power has the great advantage that it can be integrated into housing."
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