Solar battery - 60 years

Exactly 60 years ago, April 25, 1954, the company's specialists Bell Laboratories announced the creation of the first solar cells based on silicon to produce electric current.




First photo of solar panels in the magazine Look in 1956 i>




This discovery was made by three employees - Kelvin Soulzerom Fuller (Calvin Souther Fuller), Daryl Chapin (Daryl Chapin) and Gerald Pearson (Gerald Pearson).

Although the path to this discovery began long before 1954. Research in this field and engaged the German Heinrich Hertz (the same Hertz ), and the Russian scientist Alexander century and even Albert Einstein.

The first solar cells in the mid 50s seemed a technological toy, nothing more. Because the solar battery cell that produced 1 watt of electricity, worth $ 250, and current dollars. And electricity is worth 100 times more expensive than electricity from conventional thermal power plant. Efficiency of such batteries was about 6%.



It was a boom time for Space Studies, and of course the potential of solar cells has been rightly judged in the industry. After 4 years, 17 March 1958, the US launched the first satellite with solar panels - Vanguard 1. By the way, he is still in Earth orbit. After just a couple of months, May 15, 1958 in the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 3, also with the use of solar panels.

But for a long time, solar panels are used only for space and a fairly short list of tasks. Too expensive was obtained in this way energy. 22 years later, in 1977, the cost was reduced to $ 76 per 1 watt cell.
But gradually the research in the field of solar panels have improved the efficiency of up to 15% by the middle of the 90s of the last century and the beginning of the 21st century was to achieve efficiency values ​​of 20%. Over the last decade was a big step forward has been achieved efficiencies of 26% . Value fell below $ 1, and continues to fall.



Now solar cells used everywhere - in space and on the ground, in the cheap calculator and a cellular repeaters in the Siberian taiga .
Hopefully, that solar energy will become available soon.

Links to interesting articles about solar energy:
1. «Solar Energy: hope of humanity?»
2. «Sunny» airplane Solar Impulse 2 toured the world
3. Germany set a record for solar energy: 22 GWh

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/220899/

Tags

See also

New and interesting