Only a very small amount of energy that radiates from the sun into space comes to Earth, a billionth part. Yet this amount is enough energy to power our planet for a year and a half, that if tapped into effectively. The energy that the sun pours during the day on the roof of a median household would be able to supply electricity for 24 hours.
In Germany, for an example, the government subsidizes the installation of solar panels at home, you do not even mention the difference in radiation alone
Humans have used solar energy for centuries. From the seventh century BC, people used magnifying loupes to focus sunlight into beams so hot they could light fires in the wood. More d
early last century, many scientists and engineers began researching ways to harness solar energy. An important development was a solar water heater invented by Charles Greeley Abbott, an American astrophysicist, in 1936.
The causes of the winds, evaporation of surface water in the formation of clouds, the rain, its warmth and light are the basis of numerous chemical reactions necessary for the development of plants and animals over the centuries have led to fossil fuels like coal or oil.
Aprova
The silicon cell used today comes from the American inventor's patent Russell Ohl. It was built in 1940 and patented in 1946.
The modern era of silicon cell arrives in 1954 in Bells Laboratory. Experimenting with semiconductors accidentally found that silicon, when doping, bone, he added impurities was very sensitive to light.
The first to util ization practice of power generation in solar cells was s first two geostationary satellites, which were equipped with solar panels with only 6% efficiency . The positive results marked a pattern in the development of communications and fotovolaticos panels. The Silicon cell enters the stage of industry and development begins production technologies. The first step was and still is, more efficient search panels. This was achieved in 1970, the first solar cell heterostructure gallium arsenide (GaAs) and highly efficient developed in the Soviet Union Zohre Alferov and his research team. I must say that it's highly efficient is an ornament since the efficiency did not exceed 15%, at this point we must also clarify that only uses the silicon part of the light spectrum, red and near him, the rest is wasted. The most representative
today the use of photovoltaic panels in the aerospace sector is at Station International Space Station. The energy used comes from 16 structures of 72-meter wingspan of 12 meters wide, 864 square meters of solar panels each. No official information from the production of each of the structures. The high efficiency modules for aerospace use is around 20% efficiency. This is in reference to solar radiation on the Earth's surface in the vacuum of space, efficiency is much higher. With this data, each of the structures would provide about 170 Kw / h and the generation of the 16 structures would be about 2.7 megawatts per hour. This photovoltaic modules if they were above ground.