Solar electricity is the wave of the future in terms of how homes and businesses throughout the United States and beyond will generate electrical power. Although research into solar energy development began in ancient times, since the 1970s solar energy research and development has taken on a life of its own. With large grants from the government bestowed upon companies that work to create new and better forms of solar electric power, the time is getting close for when many if not all the homes in the United States will be powered with efficient solar electric power.

Solar electricity is produced through the use of photovoltaic solar energy cells. These energy-producing titans capture the energy of sunlight through the use of semiconductor materials. These have been traditionally made from silicon, but new developments in thin film solar cell technology now allow for semiconductor material made from cadmium telluride, also called CdTe, and copper indium gallium deselenide, which goes by the nickname of CIGS.

The semiconductor materials do an excellent job of capturing the energy from sunlight. Once the light energy is in the semiconductor, there has to be a way to regulate the free-flowing electrons produced from the process of energy capture, and this is done through the use of an electrical field, thus creating electrical current. The electrical current is drawn out of the solar cell in a similar way to drawing energy out of a battery, and that is through metal contacts that are located at the top and bottom of the cell.

Solar electricity that is produced using silicon-based photovoltaic solar cells needs a thicker layer of the silicon semiconductor material in order for the solar cell to function properly. This can cause problems, because silicon is not always readily available for use. Much thinner layers of the CdTe and CIGS semiconductor materials can be used in thin film solar cells to create a solar cell that is as efficient as a silicon solar cell, but some of the materials in those semiconductors are toxic to humans and other animals, and so this is a concern depending upon the placement of the solar cells.

However, the benefit of the thin film solar cell technology is the utter slenderness of the material, which is about as thick as common tinfoil used in the kitchen. These thin cells can eventually be concealed in the roofing materials that go on homes and buildings, offering a better look for the historic preservation of vintage buildings than the more bulky silicon solar panels that are used today in the more Southern states.