Daily Archives: 22/04/2012

Humanity has acknowledged the power of the sun since prehistoric times, awed by the glowing orb whose presence creates day and whose absence plunges the world into darkness.

For all our advances in science and technology, most of the power from the sun still eludes us. NASA reports that we use only one ten-thousandth of the sun’s energy.

Photovoltaic (PV) solar electrical systems offer new and ever-changing ways to harness that energy. The term “photovoltaic” literally means light-electricity.

In 1839, French physicist Edmond Becquerel discovered that sunlight could produce an electric current. Another century would pass before scientists fully understood that this process happens at the atomic level. Albert Einstein’s only Nobel Prize was awarded for his work on the photoelectric effect. By 1958, the space program was using solar cells. Continue reading →