TABLE OF CONTENTS As we know the sun is responsible for most of the earth's energy in one way or another. Plant photosynthesis provides the basis of our fossil fuels such as coal and oil. At the same time heat from the sun is again indirectly responsible for other common forms of renewable energy such as wind and wave power. Solar power in its accepted working definition, is the supply of energy directly from the sun. It is made up of two very distinct technologies, solar thermal and solar electricity. The first is based on the principle of using the sun's direct heat energy and is most commonly used for supplying hot water for houses and, swimming pools. It is solar electricity, with which this article concerns itself. This is a technology where the light from the sun is converted directly into electricity: this process is known as photovoltaics.
Despite its rise to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, this industry can trace its origins back 150 years. The actual photovoltaic effect was first noted over 150 years ago by Professor Becquerel. He observed a light dependent voltage between two electrodes immersed in an electrolyte. Albert Einstein united these threads with his theory of the photoelectric effect in 1905 which proposed the existence of the light photon (for which he received the Nobel Prize). Further practical application of this work had to wait until the acceleration of the...
