For years the high cost and fickle nature of solar cells has made them a poor provider of solar power, but two recent advancements may allow solar cells to become a cheap and readily available alternative energy source.

Solar cells can make cells far more useful to consumers by using infrared light to produce power. Current research on polymer-based solar cell technology may be able to reduce the cost of solar cells dramatically by replacing the silicon used in modern solar cells with cheaper plastics.

The ability of these cells to be sprayed-on to ordinary objects could create instant solar cells and greatly reduce the need for expensive labs.

These labs fabricate solar cells by producing a joint in silicon with different impurities on either side of the joint. When a silicon atom, which contains four electrons in its outer shell, bonds with another silicon atom it fills its outer shell, and loses its electric conductivity. However, when small amounts of impurities, such as phosphorus or boron, are introduced into a pure silicon crystal, the material becomes semi-conductive. This is because each “impure” atom bonds with silicon in a way that either results in an extra electron or a missing electron.

When light shines on the cell, it excites the electrons, which travel to an electron deficient area of the solar cell — the movement of these electrons generates a current and allows sunlight to become electricity.

The high cost of solar cells is due to the fabrication of these silicon crystals that require the use of state-of-the-art electronic labs, such as the Solid State Electronics lab on North Campus.

To determine the amount of conductivity in the cells, every step must be monitored, precisely calibrating the amount of impurities on the silicon crystals.

Despite the high-cost of solar cells, the U.S. Department of Energy reports 250,000 homes in the United States use them. Many homes actively trade the solar power they produce on the electrical grid.

With “net-metering” homeowners get paid for installing solar cells in their house. When a house’s solar cells produce more power than the house uses, extra electricity is sold back onto the power grid, making money for the homeowner. But when the homeowner uses more power than their solar cells can produce, they buy power automatically off the grid.

Many residents in California participate in hybrid programs such as these and save hundreds of dollars in their energy bills each year and avoid getting caught in blackouts. The largest commercial solar farm in the nation is located in Arizona and is capable of producing 3.4 megawatts per day, providing clean energy to some of the state’s residents.

Even with solar farms and home use, about 70 percent of all solar cells produced in the U.S. are exported because nations like Japan and Germany — which use the greatest amount of solar energy in the world — subsidize solar cells, unlike the U.S.

Around the world more than two billion people do not receive electricity, but so long as the sun shines and solar cell technology progresses they may eventually have access to electricity.