Page - 103 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

energy needed to desalinate large quantities of saline water via reverse osmosis. Small numbers of solar cells or panels can also be used to provide electricity to handheld calculators, roadside telephones, batterychargers, remotemicrowave relay stations, solar lanterns, water pumps, water decontamination units, and numerous other applications. It is a modular technology that can be scaled up from watt to megawatt size as needed. It also lends itself to integration with various building and other materials – e.g., as roof tiles, building facades, blankets, clothing, and other flexiblematerials. The photovoltaic effect was first demonstrated in 1839 by Edmond Bequerel, first explained in 1905 by Albert Einstein, and the first practical solar cell was developed at Bell Laboratories in 1954. They gained visibility when flown on the US Vanguard satellite in 1958 as an alternative power source to a traditional battery. By the 1960s solar cells were the principal power source for most Earth orbiting satellites, and remain so to this day. Development of solar cells for terrestrial applications became a priority of the US National Science Foundation’s RANN (Research Applied to National Figure 8.3 Ground-mounted PV (Source: NetZero Renewable Resources). Renewableenergy 103