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The following article was published in our article directory on October 17, 2011.
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The Story of Solar Energy Panels

Article Category: Computers and Technology

Author Name: Jared Sanders

The solar panel of today has a long history of development. It was already known as early as 150 years ago that it is possible to generate electricity from sunlight. When talking about who invented solar panels, the best way is by doing a historical account.

In 1839, a French physicist A. E. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect. He noted that some materials generated an electric charge when they were exposed to light. This phenomenon is the basis for how most panels work. It was after 44 years in 1883 that the phenomenon was observed in the first photovoltaic cell that was made by Charles Fritts.

The first cell invented by Fritts was made from selenium. The semiconductor had a thin coat of gold around it and was not very effective in generating electricity. The reason, now known, is that selenium is not a very good semiconductor. That is why it was so hard to find a practical use for this device.

Bell Laboratories found a way to make more efficient photovoltaic cells. However it was expensive to generate electricity from sunlight. The manufacturing process at that time was $250 to generate one watt of electricity. This high cost made this impractical for everyday use.

The space age and the launching of man-made satellites generated a demand for light-weight sources of electricity. At that time photovoltaic cells were the only technology that offered advantageous power to weight ratios. This prompted research for better ways of making such cells so that in the early 1970s it now took only 100 dollars to produce 1 watt of electricity from sunlight.

One of the most important developments that hastened the development of modern solar panels was the oil crisis of the 1970s. Big oil firms like Exxon realized that in 30 years, generating electricity by conventional power plants would not be cheap anymore. So these firms started to explore alternative power sources which included sunlight.

Exxon founded Solar Power Corporation or SPC. Headed by Elliot Berman, they found more efficient ways of manufacturing photovoltaic cells. They were able to lower the cost of production to $10 for watt of current.

The cost of generating electricity today from sunlight averages $3.40. When this cost becomes competitive with the cost of electricity that comes from conventional sources then grid parity takes place. The US government projects that by 2015, the cost of power generated by alternative sources should be almost the same as that from the grid. When this finally happens expect a strong shift to green sources of electrical power.

While the first photovoltaic cell can be attributed to Charles Fritts, the story of who invented solar panels can never be attributed to a single person. This is especially true when modern cells are considered. A wide variety of technologies are used to harness the energy of sunlight for creating usable energy. Each technology used has a list of people who were involved in making it possible. A long list of names would be involved when talking about how modern alternative energy generation from the sun came about.

Keywords: who invented solar panels, who created solar panels, solar panels, solar energy panels

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