Solar panels have been around since 1883 and were invented by American inventor Charles Fritts, he made the first solar cells from selenium. Fast forward to 1954 where Bell Labs took a big leap in solar cell technology by creating the first type of silicon solar cells which are closer to the solar cells we use in solar panels today.

As the space race developed NASA then spent a lot of money on the research and development of solar cells and solar panels as they discovered they would be the best way to power various parts of the spacecraft whilst out in space.

From this development there was an emergence of new lower cost silicon cell technologies such as polycrystalline or multicrystalline solar cells and then higher efficiency solar cells and solar panels such as the mono crystalline solar cells and the HIT hybrid solar cell.

The most popular solar cells used in solar panels today are called PERC Solar cells, this stands for passivated emitter and rear contact. It basically means the cell features an additional layer on the back to allow more sunlight to be captured and turned into electricity. This makes the solar panel more efficient and lower cost per Watt to produce.

The Solar Cells featured in the REA Solar Panels are a modified version of this PERC solar cell technology. The PERC Cell is laser cut into smaller pieces then fused back together with a patented fusion technology to create a flexible solar sheet that provides more surface area to collect solar energy and lowers the amount of inactive space on the solar panel. That is one of the features that allow REA Solar to produce more power with less solar panels.