The solar cells Alan Freeman uses to power his car and his boat are essentially similar to those used to power space satellites. They are the result of the same kind of semiconductor technology that has given us the transistor, the pocket calculator and the digital watch.
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They are made of the crystalline material silicon, which is one of the chemical elements ( its most common compounds are sand and quartz-silicon dioxide ). Silicon when pure does not conduct electricity but it does slightly when doped, or adulterated, by carefully controlled amounts of arsenic.
A solar cell is made up of silicon that has been doped in such a way that part ( the n-part ) can emit electrons and ( the p-part ) can receive them. The junction between them is called the p-n junction. When light falls on the cell, elections flow across the p-n junction, thus constituting an electric current.
not sure if all electric is better...
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