"A [warm] dish may be placed in a pit [on the Sabbath]. . . to be cooled, or cold water in the sun, for it to be heated."
"Said R. Nahman: In the sun, all agree that it is permitted; in a fire-heated object all agree that it is forbidden"
"An egg may be rolled [roasted] on a hot roof"
This is something I had not really thought or read about - the use of solar power on Shabbat. Remarkable, in a way, because in an earlier Mishnah, the Rabbis forbade the people of Tiberias from using the heat of sulphur springs to cook on Shabbat. After all, the prohibition is against using fire. So what's the problem? As it turns out, the Rabbis rescinded that prohibition when they realized it was an entirely natural process which did not involve fire. (Of course, by then the Tiberians had already abandoned their novel and natural process!)
Here, however, there is no prohibition against using solar power for cooking (at least directly. It would probably be a different matter to use solar generated electricity to heat a burner).
Something we should be thinking about. Solar power is environmentally and Shabbat friendly!
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