History Of Photovoltaics

However, Becquerel’s discovery couldn’t find any practical use and was limited being tagged as an observed phenomenon. Similar effect was noticed by Willoughby Smith in 1873 while working with Selenium. Finally in 1883 a working solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts using selenium on a thin layer of gold which gave an energy efficiency of less than 1%.

Though experimented, the theoretical explanation of the photovoltaic effect and the solar cells was not comprehensible till the next century.

In 1932 the photovoltaic effect in Cadmium selenide (a photovoltaic material used till today) was discovered by Audobert and Stora. In 1948 Gordon Teal and John Little constructed single-crystalline germanium and, later, silicon- the ultimate photovoltaic material.

In 1954 the Bell Labs announced the invention of the first modern silicon solar cell with an efficiency index of 6%. However, the high cost of solar photovoltaic electricity was made it impossible to be sustained commercially. In 1957 it cost 1,785$ for 1 watt of photovoltaic energy. So the use was limited to laboratory experiments and space engineering only. The first solar-powered satellite was Vanguard I which ran for eight years. It was a major success in the history of the photovoltaics.

In 1959, Hoffman Electronics introduced commercially available solar cells with 10% efficiency. In 1955 first sun-powered automobile was demonstrated in Chicago. In 1963, Sharp Corporation developed the first usable photovoltaic module from silicon solar cells. In 1976 the first amorphous (means no original shape or form, non-crystalline) silicon solar cell was developed by RCA Laboratories. By 1977, the world production of photovoltaic modules exceeded 500 kW.

In 1983 Solar Trek vehicle with photovoltaic system of 1 kW drove 4,000 km in twenty days of Australia Race. The maximum speed was 72 km/h, and the average speed was 24 km/h. The same year the vehicle surpassed the distance of 4,000 km between Long Beach, California, and Daytona Beach, Florida, in 18 days.

In 1984, a 1 MW photovoltaic power plant began to operate in Sacramento, California. In 1986, ARCO Solar introduced a G-4000, the first commercial thin film photovoltaic module.

In the Pentax World Solar Challenge 1997 race through Australia a General Motors Sunracer vehicle won with average speed of 71 km/h. On August 13, 2001; after long research and trial, the solar powered plane HELIOS broke the record of high-flying by reaching 30,000 meters.

Today, going beyond science projects and laboratory experiments, the use of photovoltaics has spread all over. Even in under-developed countries, solar projects are being used extensively. At present there are a number of projects with megawatt plus power output. The efficiency of the cell has increased amazingly, too. The new record in solar power efficiency is 42.8% achieved by University of Delaware in July 2007. It’s not anymore a distant future when we will have a big share of national power consumptions topped up by the solar energy.