The history of solar cells

Photovoltaic solar panels are thin silicon wafers that convert sunlight into electricity. The production of solar cells is more relevant today than ever. They act as energy sources in a wide range of areas, including telecommunications, space industries, medicine, communications, microelectronics, etc. Solar arrays in the form of large arrays are used in various satellites and solar power stations.

The history of solar panels began in the 19th century, and the technology of their production developed surprisingly quickly. The reason was the ongoing research in the field of conversion of solar energy into electrical energy. Back in 1839, Antoine-César Becquerel presented the chemical battery he had created, which, under the influence of the sun, generated electricity. The first solar battery had an efficiency of only 1%. That is, only one percent of the sunlight was converted to electricity. In 1873, Willoughby Smith discovered the sensitivity of selenium to light, and in 1877, Adams and Day noted that selenium under the influence of light produces an electric current. Charles Fritts in 1880 used selenium coated with gold to produce the first solar cell, which also had an efficiency of 1%. However, Fritts considered their solar cells revolutionary. He considered the possibility of using free solar energy as a means of diversifying energy supplies, predicting that the solar panels produced would soon replace existing power plants.

With the photoelectric effect explained by Albert Einstein in 1905, hopes of creating solar cells with higher efficiency appeared, but the progress was insignificant. In the middle of the 20th century, research in the field of diodes and transistors yielded the knowledge necessary for scientists. In 1954, Gordon Pearson, Darryl Chapin, and Cal Fuller produced a silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 4%. Subsequently, the cell efficiency was increased to 15%. Solar panels were first used in rural areas and remote cities as a power source for a telephone system, where they have been used successfully for many years.

At present, solar batteries produced cannot yet fully satisfy energy needs, but they have become the main source of energy for providing artificial earth satellites. The existing fuel systems and batteries were too heavy. Solar panels have a higher ratio of generated energy to weight than all other traditional sources of energy and are more cost-effective.

So far the number of installed large-scale energy photovoltaic systems is small. Most of the efforts are aimed at providing with their help of electricity remote and hard-to-reach places. The annual capacity of installed solar power plants is about 50 megawatts. But solar panels provide only about 1 percent of all electricity currently produced. Proponents of the solar industry say that the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface each year could easily meet energy needs several times. But the story of the creation of solar cells must go a long way before fulfilling Charles Fritts’s dream of getting free and affordable solar energy.