Solar Panels

Events

1839 - Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observes the photovoltaic effect via an electrode in a conductive solution exposed to light.

1839

He claimed that “shining light on an electrode submerged in a conductive solution would create an electric current. He even saw a voltage develop when the sunlight fell on the electrode.

1873 - Willoughby Smith finds that selenium is photoconductive

1873

Willoughby Smith was an English electrical engineer who discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium. This discovery led to the invention of photoelectric cells, including those used in the earliest television systems.

1883 - Charles Fritts develops a solar cell using selenium on a thin layer of gold to form a device giving less than 1% efficiency

1883

Charles Fritts was the American inventor credited with creating the first working Selenium Cell in 1883. Fritts coated the semiconductor material selenium with an extremely thin layer of gold.

1888-1891: Aleksandr Stoletov creates the first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect

1888 - 1891

Aleksandr Stoletov built the first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect and estimated the response time of the photoelectric current.

1888 - Edward Weston receives patent US389124, "Solar cell," and US389125, "Solar cell."

1888

Patent 389125: https://www.google.com/patents/US389125
Patent 389124: https://www.google.com/patents/US389124

1941 - Russell Ohl was the first inventor, who created the silicon solar cell.

1941

Russel Ohl was an American engineer who is generally recognized for patenting the modern solar cell (US Patent 2402662, "Light sensitive device")

1954 - AT&T exhibits solar cells with 6% efficiency.

1954

Bell Laboratories’ scientists Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin designed the first practical photovoltaic cell in the mid-’50s in Murray Hill. The successful first trial of their solar panel, made up of razor blade-sized strips of silicon, was on Oct, 4, 1955, at a telephone carrier in Georgia.

1958 - Bell Labs went on to supply solar electric power for NASA’s first permanent satellite in 1958.

1958

1960 - Hoffman Electronics creates a 14% efficient solar cell.

1960

1967 - Soyuz 1 is the first manned spacecraft to be powered by solar cells

1967

1985 - 20% efficient silicon cell are created by the centre for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales

1985

1994 - NREL develops a GaInP/GaAs two-terminal concentrator cell, which becomes the first solar cell to exceed 30% conversion efficiency.

1994

2006 - New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology - New Solar Cell Breaks the “40 Percent Efficient” Sunlight-to-Electricity Barrier

2006

2008 - New record achieved in solar cell efficiency.

2008

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8% of the light that hits it into electricity

2012 - 3D PV-cel with 30% more energy efficiency

2012

2016 - University of New South Wales engineers established a new world record

2016

2016 - University of New South Wales engineers established a new world record for unfocused sunlight conversion to electricity with an efficiency increase to 34.5%