If you are someone who lives in the United States, you probably take electricity for granted. It is an ordinary occurrence that when you flip a light switch, the light immediately, and reliably, turns on. As North Americans, we rarely give the energy used throughout our homes a second thought, because the electricity is so reliable and so widely available.

However, costs for producing electricity continue to rise, and because of high costs, as well as degradation to the environment due to how electricity is often produced, many scientists, developers, and city councils are looking for new ways to create electricity that are more cost effective and do not damage the environment. This is a big reason why the field of solar photovoltaic energy has been on the forefront of technology research and development. Although you may not use much solar photovoltaic energy in your home now, that may change in the near future.

Solar photovoltaics have to do with creating electricity from the energy derived from sunlight. Although the field of solar photovoltaic energy is quite complicated, there are some basics that can be gleaned that make it fairly simple for lay people to understand.

The first problem that solar photovoltaics have to solve is figuring out how to capture the energy in sunlight. The solution comes in the form of materials known as semiconductors. The semiconductor is excellent at absorbing the energy from sunlight.

The next problem that has to be solved is gaining control over that recently captured energy. When the light hits the semiconductor, the energy is released in the form of free-moving electrons. A solution comes in the form of an electrical field, which gets the electrons all moving in the same direction, which then leads to the creation of electrical current.

A final problem that solar cells have to overcome is how to get that electrical current out of the cell once it is captured and transformed into current. The solution comes from metal contacts. When they are placed in the appropriate spots, namely the bottom and top of the solar cell, the electricity can then be drawn from the cell and put to use powering all of the electrical objects that we have in our homes.

Although one solar cell, by itself, may not have much power, when several cells are attached they form a solar panel, which has a higher electrical voltage when the cells work in tandem. Scientists are currently working on ways to create large-scale solar systems that are cost-effective enough that entire cities can run their utility systems affordably by using the renewable energy that comes from the sun and solar cells, which will have an impact on how you power the electrical systems in your home, as well as the price you pay for that electricity.