Homemade Solar Cell

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From the First Solar Cell to Today`s Homemade Solar Cell

Have you met the solar cell? When installing Do-It-Yourself solar panels onto your home, the solar cell is the essence of what transforms energy from sunlight, into electrical energy. While you don`t need a PhD in physics to fully understand solar cells, it helps to have a basic knowledge of them when using homemade solar cell panels to lower your utility bills in a clean and efficient way.

The job of solar cells is to transform light into electrical energy. What makes them particularly fascinating is that they don`t include any mechanical or chemical processes. How did it all begin? Remember the name Antoine-César Becquerel. In 1939, the Frenchman made a crucial discovery linked to solar cells: the “photovoltaic effect.” Becquerel noticed that when light hit an electrode, voltage was created.

Another important name to remember in the development of technology that ultimately led to the homemade solar cell is Charles Fritts. He created “junctions” by covering a semiconductor with an ultra-thin sheet of gold. While Fritts certainly deserves recognition for his invention, it`s also worth noting that his invention didn`t work extremely well. The cells converted less than 1% of collected light into electrical power.

As the 1900s progressed the solar cell continued to evolve into a superior product. In 1927, a new “junction” emerged, which was made of copper and copper oxide. By the next decade, people were using the copper oxide solar cell for applications such as photography. However, researchers had failed to solve a crucial problem: the cells` conversion of energy was still less than 1%!

Fortunately for those who build solar panels with today`s homemade solar cell, a breakthrough happened in 1941. That`s when Russell Ohl created the silicon solar cell. Then in the middle 1950s, three American researchers unveiled a silicon solar cell that had an energy conversion efficiency of 6%. By the late 1980s, solar cells with an efficiency rate of over 20% emerged. Just before the 1990s began, researchers created a “concentrator solar cell” with an efficiency rating of 37%! This process used lenses to focus sunlight onto the surface s of the cells.

So you may be wondering: how do today`s solar cells work? They`re based on the physics of semiconductors, and contain a region that`s extremely sensitive to light. The photovoltaic effect, used for today`s homemade solar cell, converts light into electrical energy at three essential layers. The “top junction layer” sits atop the core layer. This center layer is the “absorber layer.” Meanwhile, the bottom layer is the “back junction layer.”

Today`s solar cells also contain two other layers. These “electrical contact layers” permit electric current to move inside the cell and then out of it. It`s crucial that both of these layers are comprised of an excellent electrical conductor, such as metal.

Today`s triple-junction solar cells have an efficiency of roughly 30% (2007). That rate will likely increase as time marches on.

It`s been a long and fascinating journey for solar cells, which has ultimately led them to today`s homemade solar cell panels. What will be their next great development?

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