The History Of Solar Panels

Let s look at the longer than you think history of this critical energy source for our future.

The history of solar panels.

But the story is much larger than just that. By 1975 that figure had dropped to just over 100 a watt. It s almost hard to believe it s taken us this long to turn solar panels into a mainstream technology but there have been a few twists and turns along the way. The term solar panel is used colloquially for a photo voltaic pv module.

Since the year 1980 solar panel prices have dropped by at least 10 percent every single year. In 1956 solar panels cost roughly 300 per watt. Today a solar panel can cost as little as 0 50 a watt. Solar cells begin to power navigation warning lights and horns on many.

But as high tech as it seems the history of solar power goes back to the 19th century. Since the beginning of life on earth the sun has been the ultimate source of all energy. The history of solar panels can be described by becquerel s discovery of photovoltaic effect or the invention of first solar cell by chapin fuller and pearson in bell labs. This featured an 8 story parabolic mirror.

The odeillo solar furnace located in odeillo france was constructed. Despite vast amounts of subsidies solar power comprises less than 1 percent of us electricity generation. Elliot berman with help from exxon corporation designs a significantly less costly solar cell bringing price down from 100 a watt to 20 a watt. Photo voltaic cells use sunlight as a source of energy and generate direct current electricity a collection of pv modules is called a pv panel and a system of panels is an array.