solar panel

Ecologa

2022

We explain what a solar panel is and who invented this device. In addition, how it works and what it is used for.

The solar panel is considered an eventual alternative to traditional forms of energy.

What is a solar panel?

Solar panels or solar modules are devices designed to capture electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, for its subsequent use and transformation into various forms of Energy useful, as are the thermal energy (obtained by solar collectors) and the electric power (obtained by photovoltaic panels).

This type of artifact emerged in the mid-twentieth century and used to provide constant energy to the satellites put into orbit around the Earth, and then to improve the quality of life from populations away from all forms of conventional electrical wiring or transmission.

Since then it has gained importance as a possible alternative to traditional forms of energy, which have been in crisis since the end of the century due to the very high demand world energy and at the high ecological cost of producing it.

Who Invented Solar Panels?

The first spacecraft to use solar panels was Vanguard 1.

Solar panels are heirs to the early photovoltaic designs of the French physicist Alexandre-Edmunde Becquerel in 1839, although the first rudimentary solar cell was produced in 1883 by the American Charles Fritts. Although it was only 1% efficient, it attracted enough attention that in 1946 Russel Ohl patented the modern solar cell.

However, it was in 1954 that Bell Laboratories discovered that silicon semiconductors were very sensitive to light, allowing the manufacture of the first commercial solar cell with an approximate yield of 6% in that same decade, which allowed the launching of the first Soviet and American satellites in 1957 and 1958 respectively, using a solar cell design of the business Hoffman Electronics. The first spacecraft to use solar panels was the American Vanguard 1, launched in 1958.

Contemporary versions of the solar panel would appear in 1970 (endowed with gallium arsenide or GaAs heterostructure) and 1980 (with chemical deposition of metals by organic vapors). With these new models the efficiency of the solar panels was raised up to 22% and in later versions to 30%.

How do solar panels work?

The solar panel constantly captures the thermal and / or light energy of the solar radiation.

Solar panels absorb radiation from the Sun thanks to the set of crystals of semiconductor material that compose them: crystalline silicon or gallium arsenide, and that when connected respond to the photovoltaic effect, according to which certain matter can emit electrons when bombarded with electromagnetic radiation (usually visible light or ultraviolet light).

These materials receive sunlight and generate a electric field, which is then redirected through cables and transmitters to storage devices. Thus, the structures of stainless metal panels are constantly exposed to the sunlight, constantly capturing thermal and / or light energy from solar radiation.

Uses of solar panels

Cos solar thermal collectors you can get hot water for everyday use.

Solar panels are used to generate heat Y electricity from sunlight, said quickly. Depending on the case, we can talk about two types of panels:

  • Thermal solar collectors. Solar panels through which it is circulated Water or a liquid thermoreceptor, which is heated by the energy captured from the sun and is then pumped into a thermos filled with drinking water, to which the transmitted heat is transferred and the cycle restarts. This way you can get hot water for daily use or to heat rooms.
  • Photovoltaic panels. Formed by cells that convert light into electricity and then transmit it through wiring to a cell or photovoltaic cell, which receives the generated load and stores it, to supply electricity to its various local users.

Solar energy

Solar energy is key in maintaining structures and machinery in space.

Next to the wind power Y geothermal, solar energy has emerged at the beginning of the 21st century as a hope for the humanity, since the demand for energy is incessant in the eternal world and the traditional ways of obtaining it are increasingly expensive in financial and ecological terms. Burning fossil fuels, for example, is assumed to be largely responsible for the climatic changes suffered by the world in recent times, due to the high concentration of gases from greenhouse effect on the atmosphere.

Thus, the installation of solar panels in homes, vehicles and even the manufacture of solar plants in desert locations seems to be the future of obtaining electricity, as long as it is possible to maximize the performance of the solar panels that we know and use today. Likewise, solar energy seems to be key in maintaining structures and machinery in space, for a humanity increasingly interested in the colonization of other planets and in space exploration. It is undoubtedly a technology full of future.

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