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Solar Cells
Solar cells use a semiconductor to convert the solar energy of sunlight into electricity via the photovoltaic effect. Individual cells are assembled in order to form solar panels and arrays. First observed by French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, son of electricity pioneer Antoine Cesar Becquerel, as a teenager in 1839, the photovoltaic effect is the process by which voltage or electric current is created in a material that has been exposed to electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The first solar cell was built in 1883 by American inventor Charles Fritts, who coated selenium (a semiconductor) with a thin layer of gold. The solar cell worked but had an efficiency of only about 1 percent, making it impossible to generate enough electricity to recover the cost of ...
- Adsorption Chiller
- Desalination Plants
- Batteries
- Engineering Studies
- Arms Race
- Appliances, Energy Efficient
- Actor-Network Theory
- Composting Toilet
- Algae Biofuel
- Environmental Remediation
- Clean Energy
- Environmental Science
- Authoritarianism and Technology
- Appropriate Technology
- Anarchoprimitivism
- Design for Recycling
- Anaerobic Digestion
- Green Metrics
- Coal, Clean Technology
- Frankfurt School
- Ecological Modernization
- Best Available Technology
- Bioethics
- E-Waste
- Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt)
- Green Roofing
- Concentrating Solar Technology
- Information Technology
- European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive
- Best Practicable Technology
- Boundary Objects
- Extended Producer Responsibility
- Biochar
- Participatory Technology Development
- Earthships
- Science and Technology Studies
- European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive
- Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaic Thin Film
- Carbon Footprint Calculator
- Flue Gas Treatment
- Biochemical Processes
- Water Purification
- Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
- University-Industrial Complex
- Green Building Materials
- Carbon Capture Technology
- Carbon Market
- Greywater
- Biogas
- White Rooftops
- Offshore Oil Drilling (Gulf Oil Spill)
- Green Technology Investing
- Carbon Finance
- Cradle-to-Cradle Design
- Plasma Arc Gasification Technology
- Biotechnology
- Zero-Energy Building
- Passive Solar
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)
- Democratic Rationalization
- Recycling
- Cellulosic Biofuels
- Smart Grid
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Copper Indium (Gallium) Selenide (CIGS or CIS) Solar Photovoltaic Thin Film
- Enframing and Standing Reserve
- Solid Waste Treatment
- Distillation
- Solar Cells
- LEED Standards
- Crystalline Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Cell
- Faustian Bargain
- Wastewater Treatment
- Green Chemistry
- Solar Hot Water Heaters
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Eco-Electronics
- Futurology
- Maglev
- Solar Ovens
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
- Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
- Innovation
- Membrane Technology
- Waste-to-Energy Technology
- Science and Technology Policy
- Electrostatic Precipitator
- Labor Process
- Pyrolysis
- Wind Turbine
- Social Agency
- Geoengineering
- Luddism
- Thermal Depolymerization
- Sustainable Design
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- Marxism and Technology
- Thermal Heat Recovery
- Green Markets
- Postindustrialism
- Thermochemical Processes
- Green Nanotechnology
- Reflexive Modernization
- High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Systems
- Social Construction of Technology
- Hybrid/Electric Automobiles
- Sociology of Technology
- Materials Recovery Facilities
- Structuration Theory
- Microgeneration
- Systems Theory
- Pozzolan
- Technological Autonomy
- Product Stewardship
- Technological Determinism
- Rainwater Harvesting Systems
- Technological Momentum
- Technological Utopias
- Technology and Social Change
- Technology Transfer
- Unintended Consequences
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