Erfan Nowshadi - Master of Architectural Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Sepidan Branch, Fars, Iran

Solar energy is the sun's radiant light and heat harnessed using a range of evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis. Solar energy is a basic source of renewable energy, and depending on how to absorb and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar electricity, its technologies are divided into passive solar and active solar. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness energy. The growth of global energy consumption in the last century, and with it the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, has been accompanied by more and more environmental pollution and irreparable damage to vital resources. In order to reduce the global reliance on finite natural resources and environmentally harmful fuels, many scientific efforts have been made to reduce the cost of producing energy from renewable sources. For example, the attempt to generate electrical energy using sunlight has been made using the inherent property of semiconductors. The first semiconductor-based solar cells with efficiencies of more than ۱۰% were built in the ۱۹۵۰s and ۱۹۶۰s. Currently, ۸۵ to ۹۰% of solar photovoltaic components worldwide are made on the basis of thin silicon crystal tablets. Today, the use of semiconductors has revolutionized the optical and electronics industries. In this article, we have tried to introduce solar energy as one of the new and valuable energies and while introducing the photovoltaic phenomenon, the solar cell is introduced as a tool to benefit from this gift. Then, different types of solar cells have been briefly introduced based on the time of their creation.

Renewable energy, solar energy, solar cell, photovoltaic, solar panel