When people think of solar energy, they marvel at the technological advances of modern science. However, solar power theories have been around for over 180 years. In 1839, a French scientist named Antoine César Becquerel, discovered an interesting occurrence, called the photovoltaic effect, during an experiment he was conducting. The photovoltaic effect is the creation of a voltage in a material when exposed to electro-magnetic radiation from sunlight.
This discovery happened while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made with two metal electrodes located in an electrolyte solution; similar to how a car battery works. Antoine-Cesar Becquerel discovered that while the electrolytic cells were exposed to light, they produced electricity. The more light he applied, the greater the amount electricity produced. Becquerel had basically created a solar powered battery. This type of battery is called a photovoltaic cell. A collection of these cells wired in series or in parallel is called a solar panel.
In 1883, almost 50 years after Becquerel’s discovery, Charles Fritts created the world’s first photovoltaic cell using selenium coating sheets with a micro-thin slice of gold. For the next six decades scientists and inventors continued to perform research with solar energy, both with private funds and corporate assistance. One typical inventor named Clarence Kemp from Baltimore created and patented the world’s first commercial solar energy water heaterAlbert Einstein published a thesis on photoelectric effect and subsequently received the Nobel Prize for his discoveries.
While working for Bell Laboratories, an American inventor named Russell Ohl created and patented the first ever silicon solar cell in 1941. Bell Laboratories continued to pursue Ohl’s invention and in 1954 released the first crystalline silicon solar panel. These solar cells produced an incredible level of efficiency achieving a 4% return on overall energy production. In the years that followed this pioneering development, scientists throughout the world enhanced Bell Laboratories’ innovation and quickly developed solar cells producing 6% efficiency on overall energy conversion.
Research and development into solar electric technologies grew rapidly and produced its first real usage at the dawn of the space age, more precisely, its use in space satellites. It’s not viable to fire satellites into space which depended on refueling or operated on conventional batteries which would eventually die. A renewable power source was needed to let satellites to remain in orbit for much longer without needing to be recharged. Solar power fit that requirement entirely. In 1958, NASA launched the Vangaurd Spacecraft, which became the first artificial satellite to reach Earth’s orbit and the first satellite to be powered by solar power.
America was the original country to fund the large scale research and development of solar cells, which in 1980, yielded 20% efficiency on overall energy conversion. By 2000, American companies had created numerous solar cells capable of producing 24% efficiency. In 2008, Emcore Photovoltaics and Spectrolab proclaimed that they’ve reached new levels of power by designing a solar cell which yielded 28% efficiency.
No one knows where the future of solar energy will lead us. However, as more and more applications employ the use of solar electric power, both the cost and efficiency of solar cells will develop to encourage more wide spread adoption. Someday, solar panels will be able to generate the bulk of the energy required to support the constantly growing hunger of our hi-tech, modern civilization.
