Photovoltaic (PV)

Photovoltaic cells are made of parallel clusters of semiconductor materials such as silicon. Although silicon has been by far the most commonly used material, basically because of its abundance (it's the second most available element in the Earth's crust), it takes a lot of effort to generate a quality and efficient PV cell and until recently the cost for PV arrays restricted most people from using it.
Today those costs have come down considerably and are further diminished by the abundance of federal, state, and local tax credits, reliefs and other monetary incentives to make installing a solar energy system a viable and cost effective energy alternative. The future looks brighter and clearer still as scientists continue to explore different ways to create other non-silicon based photovoltaic panels with the hope of eventually producing solar cells at about one-tenth the cost of silicon based products.