Solar panels are devices made to convert solar energy into electricity or heat on. While most think of how new technology has the basic concept already in use since about a century ago to heat water in homes. Explained by many as one of the alternatives to oil and coal power plants with the greatest potential, the use of solar cells steadily gaining ground as the technology continues to come forward. The origins of solar date way back to the beginning of 1839 when French physicist Antoine Cesar Becquerel, was about the connection between light and electricity by the photovoltaic effect in an experiment with an electrolytic cell made of two metal electrodes in an electrolyte solution. He noted that the main increase of the cell when it was exposed to light. About forty four years later, the first true solar panel was created by Charles Fritts. His invention was to be covered by sheets of selenium with a thin layer of gold. From then until the mid-20th Century, many of them have experimented with the idea of solar energy. During this time, Baltimore inventor of a patent under the name Clarence Kemp’s first commercial solar plant. Even Albert Einstein wrote and published a paper on the photoelectric effect and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research years later. Another contribution was developed by a Carnegie Steel Company employee named William Bailey, the inventor of the first solar collector, made by copper coils in an insulated box. Later, while working for Bell Laboratories, American inventor Russell Ohl patented the first proper silicon solar cells in 1941. With this innovation, Bell Laboratories went to the first crystalline silicon solar cells produce thirteen years later. The original mass-production model of the design were 4% efficiency in energy conversion. The technology has steadily improved over the years, leading to solar cells with at least 6% efficiency. The technology still be used for space missions. Space satellites were one of the first things that the solar panels used in practice. At this time the U.S. had already begun to produce solar modules with 20% efficiency. Today, Spectrolab and Emcore Photovoltaics world leader in solar cell production, production of panels with 28% efficiency. Most solar cells are made of pure silicon, which is a semi-conductor, made out for the perfect channeling of energy. With impurities and foreign matter are removed, the silicon serves as an ideal neutral platform for the transfer of electrons. Since silicon is the natural state of four electrons, it is understood that, according to modern chemistry, which can deal with them four more. Once a silicon atom combines with another, they are their electron shares at a stable molecule with eight valence electrons form and gives it a neutral charge. This concept is the basis for modern solar collectors. As an alternative energy solar collectors have advantages and disadvantages that come along with their worldwide implementation. It is clean and can be used anywhere where there is adequate sunlight. However, this is also its disadvantage, as you do not need sunlight to create electricity. Moreover, it is still expensive because the technology as an independent power source has become more within reach of the mainstream. It may be, however, solar panels, along with other alternatives such as wind turbines, fuel cells, and so on, have the potential of conventional fossil fuels as the main source of energy to replace it. As long as research and interest in the technology remains present, it is possible
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