Crystalline Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Cell

According to the British Petroleum (BP) “Statistical Review of World Energy” reported in 2008, the entire world consumed appro ximately 15 TW equivalent of power. As of 2005, 85 percent of the world's total energy was being produced from nonrenewable and environmentally unfriendly sources, such as fossil fuel (37 percent), natural gas (23 percent), and coal (25 percent). The total energy consumed in the United States in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Infor mation Administration, was 35.3 percent, 23.4 percent, and 19.7 percent from fossil fuel, natural gas, and coal, respectively. How ever, a completely free and renewable source of energy, the sun, provides about 100,000 TW of power to the Earth, which is approximately 6,700 times greater than the world's present rate of ...