1. What problem is your technology trying to solve?

Solar Panels try to solve our issue of finding a clean, efficient, and cheap renewable energy source.

2. Form and Function: What are its main parts and what do the parts do? How does it use or generate electricity? How do electrons move through it?

Solar Panels are mainly comprised of photo-voltaic cells made of silicon. These cells are separated into two layers which are doped with two different elements, phosphorous and boron, this results in one layer being positively charged while the other is negative, so electrons are in a constant state of movement. Additional components like wires and conductive plates allow the charges to be controlled, thus resulting in direct current.

3. What are the social implications? (How does it affect people?) Consider less developed countries and locations with different climates or geography.

Solar panels can help people in almost every inch of the world, since sunlight is constantly shining everywhere (except certain places like the poles). Although some areas may get less sun and therefore less energy, it’s still a much cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, and as production costs of solar panels decrease, it will be more easily accessible to less developed countries that have energy crises or no access to electricity at all.

4. What are the environmental implications? (How does it affects the natural world?)

As is with any other energy source, Solar panels have costs and require time and effort to create and use, but unlike other energy sources, Solar panels could be one of the easiest to produce and cleanest by comparison. The silicon that the panels are made of can be taken from sand, dirt, and any other material that contains silica, which is much more abundant and much faster to reproduce than fossil fuels.

5. Evaluate. Given the strengths and weakness of your technology, is it a satisfactory solution to the problem it is trying to solve?

It’s arguably one of the best solutions to our energy issue, it has a lot of positives going it’s way like how clean it is, how accessible it is, and as time goes on, how cheap it is in comparison to other energy sources. The only negatives it has is that not much people are using it, due to lack of knowledge or skepticism for a brand new technology meant to replace the more commonplace fossil fuels in use now.

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/41995-how-do-solar-panels-work.html

https://news.energysage.com/solar-energy-vs-fossil-fuels/