What Are Solar Energy Panels Made Of?
Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...
or sugar and spice and everything nice? Ask today's younger generation and they may say it's Beiber boys and grown-up toys...
that's what solar energy panels are made of...
well, sort of.
Justin Beiber is the sunshine of many young hearts, and when he shines on stage, the crowd energy is electrifying.
Unfortunately, we don't currently know how to capture this type of energy to use it to power our homes and businesses.
So for now, we're looking at solar energy panels, created by converting sunlight's energy into electricity to run our homes and businesses.
So...
what exactly are solar energy panels made of? Well, so far it's mostly impure silicon crystals captured and used in solar cells.
You may be wondering why we're talking about impure silicon crystals.
That's because pure silicon isn't electrically active.
It's the impurities that create the tendency to either lose or attract electrons.
All light, including sunlight, contains energy.
When sunlight hits impure crystals of silicon, an electrical current is created as the electrons get up and move.
Electrons, freed by light absorption, bounce, and are then forced to flow in a certain direction creating electrical current.
By placing metal contacts at the top and bottom of what is called a PV (photovoltaic) cell, power is extracted.
The term PV cell comes from photo...
meaning light...
combined with voltaic...
meaning electricity.
You probably have...
or know someone...
who has a calculator that's powered by a PV cell.
This and other small devices, including landscaping lights, are now frequently solar-powered by PV cells.
A group of PV cells connected electronically and placed into a frame is called a panel, and a group of panels connected together is called a solar array.
It takes a lot of solar energy panels to power the average American home.
In an effort to reduce the number of panels necessary to produce sufficient energy to operate a home, or charge a battery for an automobile or generator, materials other than silicon are being experimented with, and some success is being achieved in thin film solar technology, which uses smaller cheaper crystals, like copper-indium-gallium-selenide, that are shaped into flexible films.
They're not currently as effective, however, as silicon in creating electricity.
And so...
the search for newer and better methods of creating solar energy cells goes on.
The path back to the beginning of solar energy cells is long...
and littered with fossil fuel competition.
For hundreds of years, however, mankind has sought to take advantage of the sun's energy, and we continue to progress...
slowly but surely...
to harness this inexhaustible resource.
The Romans, following the path of the Greeks with south-facing windows in their homes, covered the openings with glass or mica to capture and hold in the heat of the winter sun.
They discovered the most optimal ways to take advantage, passively, of the sun's energy.
Then, in 1861, a man named Auguste Mouchout, believing Europe would eventually run out of coal, developed the first sun-powered steam engine, a non-passive use of the sun's energy.
And, in that same time period, a man named William Gyrlls Adams discovered that light shined on selenium caused the material to shed electrons, creating electricity.
However, the expense of capturing the sun's energy made it cost-prohibitive for any real development of this work, and non-passive solar energy innovation lagged until...
through research by Albert Einstein...
the creation of electricity from solar photovoltaic cells (PV) progressed another notch with work done in 1953 by Bell Laboratories.
And, even then, it was considered too expensive.
Despite the success of scientists' Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller's work in creating measurable electrical current with solar photovoltaic cells, further progress in solar energy cell research and development essentially lay dormant.
Having lain in stagnation until the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 demonstrated the Western world's reliance on oil, the U.
S.
government began a renewed...
and desperate...
attempt to find competitive, available alternatives to energy through fossil fuel.
With subsidies for research, companies began to find ways to create photovoltaic solar energy cells more economically.
Japan rushed precipitously into PV energy in solar rooftops in the 1990's, which resulted in a significant reduction globally, through economy in scale, in the expense of PV energy cells.
Solar energy panels today, however, remain more expensive than conventional energy sources, somewhat cumbersome, and...
in some locations...
relatively ineffective.
The primary drawback of solar energy panels for normal household use remains the cost of the individual PV panels, and the number of panels necessary to generate large amounts of electricity.
However, in third world countries, especially rural areas, there are many locations where sunlight abounds, homes are small, and solar panels are extremely cost-effective, not only to the individuals using them, but for the environmental footprint not left behind.
or sugar and spice and everything nice? Ask today's younger generation and they may say it's Beiber boys and grown-up toys...
that's what solar energy panels are made of...
well, sort of.
Justin Beiber is the sunshine of many young hearts, and when he shines on stage, the crowd energy is electrifying.
Unfortunately, we don't currently know how to capture this type of energy to use it to power our homes and businesses.
So for now, we're looking at solar energy panels, created by converting sunlight's energy into electricity to run our homes and businesses.
So...
what exactly are solar energy panels made of? Well, so far it's mostly impure silicon crystals captured and used in solar cells.
You may be wondering why we're talking about impure silicon crystals.
That's because pure silicon isn't electrically active.
It's the impurities that create the tendency to either lose or attract electrons.
All light, including sunlight, contains energy.
When sunlight hits impure crystals of silicon, an electrical current is created as the electrons get up and move.
Electrons, freed by light absorption, bounce, and are then forced to flow in a certain direction creating electrical current.
By placing metal contacts at the top and bottom of what is called a PV (photovoltaic) cell, power is extracted.
The term PV cell comes from photo...
meaning light...
combined with voltaic...
meaning electricity.
You probably have...
or know someone...
who has a calculator that's powered by a PV cell.
This and other small devices, including landscaping lights, are now frequently solar-powered by PV cells.
A group of PV cells connected electronically and placed into a frame is called a panel, and a group of panels connected together is called a solar array.
It takes a lot of solar energy panels to power the average American home.
In an effort to reduce the number of panels necessary to produce sufficient energy to operate a home, or charge a battery for an automobile or generator, materials other than silicon are being experimented with, and some success is being achieved in thin film solar technology, which uses smaller cheaper crystals, like copper-indium-gallium-selenide, that are shaped into flexible films.
They're not currently as effective, however, as silicon in creating electricity.
And so...
the search for newer and better methods of creating solar energy cells goes on.
The path back to the beginning of solar energy cells is long...
and littered with fossil fuel competition.
For hundreds of years, however, mankind has sought to take advantage of the sun's energy, and we continue to progress...
slowly but surely...
to harness this inexhaustible resource.
The Romans, following the path of the Greeks with south-facing windows in their homes, covered the openings with glass or mica to capture and hold in the heat of the winter sun.
They discovered the most optimal ways to take advantage, passively, of the sun's energy.
Then, in 1861, a man named Auguste Mouchout, believing Europe would eventually run out of coal, developed the first sun-powered steam engine, a non-passive use of the sun's energy.
And, in that same time period, a man named William Gyrlls Adams discovered that light shined on selenium caused the material to shed electrons, creating electricity.
However, the expense of capturing the sun's energy made it cost-prohibitive for any real development of this work, and non-passive solar energy innovation lagged until...
through research by Albert Einstein...
the creation of electricity from solar photovoltaic cells (PV) progressed another notch with work done in 1953 by Bell Laboratories.
And, even then, it was considered too expensive.
Despite the success of scientists' Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller's work in creating measurable electrical current with solar photovoltaic cells, further progress in solar energy cell research and development essentially lay dormant.
Having lain in stagnation until the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 demonstrated the Western world's reliance on oil, the U.
S.
government began a renewed...
and desperate...
attempt to find competitive, available alternatives to energy through fossil fuel.
With subsidies for research, companies began to find ways to create photovoltaic solar energy cells more economically.
Japan rushed precipitously into PV energy in solar rooftops in the 1990's, which resulted in a significant reduction globally, through economy in scale, in the expense of PV energy cells.
Solar energy panels today, however, remain more expensive than conventional energy sources, somewhat cumbersome, and...
in some locations...
relatively ineffective.
The primary drawback of solar energy panels for normal household use remains the cost of the individual PV panels, and the number of panels necessary to generate large amounts of electricity.
However, in third world countries, especially rural areas, there are many locations where sunlight abounds, homes are small, and solar panels are extremely cost-effective, not only to the individuals using them, but for the environmental footprint not left behind.