Solar thermal energy refers to the technology of collecting solar energy in the form of heat and making it useful, for example, by converting it into electricity or heating homes. Huge solar thermal towers are being installed in sunny places around the world to convert the sun's heat into electricity via turbines powered by hot air. With this kit, you can build your own simple solar thermal updraft towers to collect the sun's energy and use it to spin five colorful turbines. Test the solar turbines in various configurations and compare the results from two different towers. Learn about thermal updrafts and solar thermal energy.