We don’t typically think about solar panels being a long-standing technology, but research and historical records show that solar power has been seen as a fundamental resource as early as the 7th century, B.C. when magnifying glasses were used to start fires (and burn ants).[i]
The technology used to store solar energy in various forms, primarily as heat, has recorded history as early as the 4th century, B.C. with heating Roman bath houses.
The quest to harness energy from the sun seems to be as old as civilization itself. For this reason, I believe solar panels are keys to our future technological advances. Two centuries ago, in 1839 French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovers the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes placed in an electricity-conducting solution—electricity-generation increased when exposed to light.[ii] From then, technology has advanced to produce more power and gain greater efficiency with different materials and configurations.
Up until recently, solar panels have been viewed as a source of power. However, I believe their usefulness has a greater capability as communications receivers, as demonstrated by a recent TED Talk, in which Harald Haas demonstrated solar panel reception with a standard LED transmitter.[iii] Mr. Haas successfully used a solar panel to receive full-motion video that was transmitted from an LED, unperceived by the naked eye. In that regard, the solar panel became more than an energy conversion medium. Solar panels can now be used to receive data, and data can be piped through every available light source. Network infrastructure now simply becomes air itself.
I believe solar panels have the “stigma” of only being thought of as an energy capture device to recharge batteries or provide limited continuous power streams. However, this demonstration now shows that solar panels can and should be used for reception of data, potentially huge amounts of bandwidth across an entire light spectrum at the same time as energy capture. Solar panels now have multiplied capability. Solar panels should be everywhere. If solar panels are employed everywhere, we will find that they will have a combined effect on the energy we need, can regain from the sun, and can reduce from fossil fuel generators. I believe this simple experiment shows a possibility to dramatically impacting our ecology for the better.
[i] https://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf
[ii] https://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf
[iii] https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_haas_a_breakthrough_new_kind_of_wireless_internet?language=en