Renewable Solar Power – 60 Years Old & Still Full Of Energy
Solar cells have been with us now for almost 60 years. During that time they have developed from expensive, bulky, technical curiosities into tiny cells that can be both affordable & efficient.
Photovoltaic (or PV) cells were developed in the 1950s at the Bell Laboratories as a spin-off of transistor technology. The now famous discovery that when the suns rays hit a wafer of silicon it generates a surprisingly large numbers of free electrons. A panel of several silicon strips were made, placed in sunlight, the captured free electrons were turned into electrical current & the first solar battery was born.
Their first real test was in the 1960s with the emergence of space flight & their use as an efficient but very expensive power source for satellites. The development of this technology is advancing every year. Today solar panels have evolved from inefficient, large panels into tiny layers of film that are now twice as conductive & designed to work with less sunlight.
Since the 1960s solar cells have steadily dropped in price from over a staggering $40,000 per watt to now around just $6 per watt & even below $3 per watt in large quantities with state rebates. Production & use of solar panels worldwide has been growing every year by an average of 48 percent since 2002 & has become the fastest expanding energy technology.
Harvesting this energy is greater than ever, it has become both a practical & economical energy source for use in homes, factories & farms, as well as a vast number of personal electronics, toys & gadgets.
Another popular & important fact is that solar energy is that it can save you lots of money & building your own solar panel is now relatively simple DIY project & cheap to do.
It enables you to take advantage of government refunds & even net metering (a great system where you can sell unused electricity back to the power company) & dramatically reduce your energy bills.
The New York Times way back in 1954 ran the headline that the invention of solar cells would `Lead to the realization of one of mankind’s most cherished dreams’. Certainly it was a very bold statement to live up to but thankfully today solar cells are a practical answer to utilizing the sun’s energy. They can provide a clean, cheap, alternative solution that is environmentally friendly & does not contribute to global warming.
If you are interested in building or installing solar panels in your home then there is a wealth of information, advice & guides available online.
You don’t need to understand the physics of renewable solar energy to appreciate it’s appeal & after 60 years, it’s appeal & benefits are greater than ever.
