How do I go about powering appliances from solar energy
Take for example this solar cell. It has a maximum peak power output of 1W, and you can fit about 130 of them in on square meter. This would be 130W peak output. "Peak output" would be at the equator at midday on a clear day. You can adjust for latitude and time-of-day using simple trigonometry and add a factor for cloud cover. My feeling is that, depending on your geography and climate, you'd be lucky to get a tenth of that as a peak on any given day under regular circumstances.

All this conspires to require very large surfaces if you need to produce enough power to power appliances.