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"First used in about 1890, "photovoltaic" has two parts: photo, derived from the Greek word for light, and volt, relating to electricity pioneer Alessandro Volta. And this is what photovoltaic materials and devices do-they convert light energy into electrical energy, as French physicist Edmond Becquerel discovered as early as 1839. Becquerel discovered the process of using sunlight to produce an electric current in a solid material. But it took more than another century to truly understand this process. Scientists eventually learned that the photoelectric or photovoltaic effect caused certain materials to convert light energy into electrical energy at the atomic level. PV systems are already an important part of our daily lives. Simple PV systems provide power for small consumer items such as calculators and wristwatches. More complicated systems provide power for communications satellites, water pumps, and the lights, appliances, and machines in some homes and workplaces. Many road and traffic signs also are now powered by PV. In many cases, PV power is the least expensive form of electricity for these tasks."

"The initial use of wind power was by Egyptians in 3000 B.C. to move their sailboats. Windmills were first used to grind grain anywhere from 2000 to 4000 years ago in ancient Persia or Babylon; crusaders brought the windmill idea back to Europe with them in the 11th century A.D. In the 1930s, windmills in rural areas of the U.S. pumped water and generated electricity."

In the 1930s, windmills in rural areas of the U.S. pumped water and generated electricity.

The initial use of wind power was by Egyptians in 3000 B.C. to move their sailboats. Windmills were first used to grind grain anywhere from 2000 to 4000 years ago in ancient Persia or Babylon; crusaders brought the windmill idea back to Europe with them in the 11th century A.D.

"The Solutions With current technology, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal can provide 96% of our electricity and 98% of our total heating demand - accounting for almost all of our primary energy demand."

" Where does Wind Energy come From? All renewable energy (except tidal and geothermal power), and even the energy in fossil fuels, ultimately comes from the sun. The sun radiates 174,423,000,000,000 kilowatt hours of energy to the earth per hour. In other words, the earth receives 1.74 x 10 17 watts of power . 1) About 1 to 2 per cent of the energy coming from the sun is converted into wind energy. That is about 50 to 100 times more than the energy converted into biomass by all plants on earth. 2)"

" Solar cells are made of the same kinds of semiconductor materials, such as silicon, used in the microelectronics industry. For solar cells, a thin semiconductor wafer is specially treated to form an electric field, positive on one side and negative on the other. When light energy strikes the solar cell, electrons are knocked loose from the atoms in the semiconductor material. If electrical conductors are attached to the positive and negative sides, forming an electrical circuit, the electrons can be captured in the form of an electric current -- that is, electricity. This electricity can then be used to power a load, such as a light or a too"

"The photoelectric effect was first noted by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel, in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light. In 1905, Albert Einstein described the nature of light and the photoelectric effect on which photovoltaic technology is based, for which he later won a Nobel prize in physics. The first photovoltaic module was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. It was billed as a solar battery and was mostly just a curiosity as it was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft. Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its reliability was established, and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications."

"Mills using tidal power can be dated back to 12th century Europe, a technology that followed colonists to the Americas."

when it was first made 

how long has solar energy been around?