Few inventions in the history of Bell Laboratories evoked as much media attention and public excitement as 1954’s announcement of the breakthrough in solar cells. U.S. News & World Report, for example, speculated excitedly that the silicon solar cell “may provide more power than all the world’s coal, oil and uranium.” Engineers, according to the article, “are dreaming of silicon powerhouses. Their future — limitless.” Unfortunately, the technical breakthrough at Bell could not overcome economics. With a one-watt cell costing $286 at the time ($2,244 in 2008 dollars), a ... Read More
Photovoltaics: A Bright Idea
March 24, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Scientists have come up with a seemingly magical way of changing the sun’s energy — not its heat — into electricity. They call the technology photovoltaics — the direct conversion of the sun’s energy into electricity using solar cells thinner than a human hair. Solar cells do away with all the equipment, boilers, turbines, pipes, cooling reservoirs and towers associated with electrical generation. Within a few microns, photons — packets of energy from the sun — silently energize electrons, which then are pushed by the configuration of the photovoltaic material to flow through ... Read More
Workhorse of the Solar Industry
February 22, 2008 • By • 1 Comment
The story of solar water heating began in the 1760s in Geneva, Switzerland, where Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, a Swiss naturalist, observed that it is always hotter when sun rays pass through a glass-covered structure, whether in a coach or a building, than into a site unprotected by such material. To put his hypothesis to scientific scrutiny, in 1767 he built an insulated box, its bottom painted black to absorb as much sun energy as possible, with two panes of glass covering the top — the prototype for all solar water heaters. De Saussure found that when he exposed the box ... Read More
