Utility is often a deciding factor when people and businesses alike opt to work with flat roof specialists on their construction projects.

A flat roof has the unique advantage of being more than just a shelter from the rain. It can be used as a storage space for HVAC units, a rooftop garden area or even a pool.

However, one of the most asked-about features of a flat roof is installing solar panels, which allow businesses to save money on their energy bills by taking advantage of sunlight instead and lessening the burden of energy bills.

The invention of the solar panel itself is a matter of some debate, with the person to discover how solar cells work and the person who created the first panels being quite different.

It was Edmond Becquerel in 1839 who first noticed that light exposure by certain materials could create an electrical charge later known as the photovoltaic effect.

However, the amounts of electricity generated were so small that the observation would be forgotten for over three decades until it was rediscovered by Willoughby Smith, who discovered specifically that the element selenium could cause this effect.

This effect was replicated and written extensively about by William Grylls Adams and Richard Evans Day.

However, the first person to put it into practice and make a solar panel you could buy was Charles Fritts, an inventor from Boston Massachusetts.

He coated the selenium with a thin layer of gold, making a technically capable solar cell that was incredibly inefficient and not generating enough electricity to be viable.

He would test this, however, by fitting a solar panel onto a New York City rooftop in 1884, and ultimately his design would be used as a light sensor for cameras.

It would take until 1954 for a commercially viable solar cell made primarily of silicon to be made.

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