DIY SOLAR CELLS GUIDE

The rush to develop alternatives energy sources has been overwhelming in the past couple of years. Governments, corporations, and even individuals have been working overtime to develop renewable, clean sources to supply the world’s ever-increasing need for power.

The Industrial Revolution, a period from roughly 1760 to 1830, brought a dramatically higher need for consistent sources of energy to supply factories and later to power that new energy guzzler, the automobile. Prior to that, the wheat in the field and the trees in the forest supplied the energy needed by a simple human life-style. Feed your oxen, mules or horses from the fields you planted and they supplied the power you needed to till and harvest your crops, or to travel to the nearest town for supplies or social meetings. The dead wood in the forest was chopped for fuel to keep you and your family warm for the winter.

New machinery was invented that required other types of fuel – and coal and natural gas became the mainstays of the Industrial Age. As the need for fuel grew to supply factories, new fossil-fuel energy reserves had to be found to keep up with the demand to power “energy-saving” devices. Energy saving must have been referring to mans energy, because the need for fuel had begun its spiral out of control even at that time. At the birth of the 21st century, it seems that we, as a global population, have close to depleted the earth’s fossil fuels. Nuclear fuel, which has been in wide use for several years, has lost some of its appeal because the radioactive by-products are difficult to dispose of. Some even speculated that maybe the moon should be a nuclear dumping ground if we want to continue developing nuclear power use.

Passive solar energy use has been acknowledged for generations. The ancient Greeks and Romans realized that correct positioning when constructing their houses could collect warmth and reduce their need for fuel in the winter. But the collection and storage of the suns rays have always been impediments to its general use. It took centuries before renewable energy systems were considered to be a viable alternative to coal and natural gas. In 1861, the first solar powered steam engine was invented by Auguste Mouchout. He was one of the first to theorize that the earth’s fossil fuels could someday run out. Now 150 years later, his point has been proven, and mankind is still not prepared to convert to non-fossil fuel energy sources.

However, advances in energy technology were certainly made during that time. Industry is in hyper-drive to harness the sun, wind, and geothermal power. In solar technology, the race is on to reduce the cost of solar collection panels and to increase their efficiency. Renewable solar energy, as one of the most constant and cleanest of alternative fuels, is one technology that appears to be adaptable to supplying the immense amounts of fuel needed. The key to its viability for general use in the population is decreasing the size of the solar collection panels while increasing the percentage of the suns energy each panel can collect.

Before you scoff, remember some of the other miniaturizations that have been so successful since 1850. The console radio became a transistor radio, music played on a Victorola went through several iterations – portable record player, tape recording, recordable CD and now down to a MP3 player – the size of a pack of gum. Likewise with massive barn-sized computers which became desktops, then laptops, and finally can now be encased in a tiny cell phone. Just as smaller and more efficient computer chips were continually developed – so are new solar collection systems being refined and miniaturized.

This is an exciting time for solar renewable energy systems. Costs are rapidly decreasing and governments are giving financial incentives for people to try the newest technology.

Join us in our quest to uncover the newest news and the most exciting developments in the Solar World. Remember – let the tree huggers Go Green, we want you to “Go Sun Yellow!”