SO Y
LAR ENE RG
The beginning
In 1839, French scientist
Edmond Becquerel discovered
the photovoltaic effect at the
young age of 19. He realized
when electrons were in an
excited state in a conduction
band, they could move freely
through a material, thus
creating a current. But this
wasn’t widely recognized until
Einstein wrote a paper about The solar panel
the power of solar for which he
The first solar panel was
eventually received the Nobel
prize in 1922.
invented by Charles Fritts
in 1883 where he coated
a thin layer of selenium
with an extremely thin
layer of gold. The
resulting cells had a
conversion electrical
efficiency of only about
The solar era 1%.
The solar era began in 1950 when
Bell Laboratory scientists
focused on photovoltaic (PV)
developments and began
utilizing silicon to produce solar
cells. But this change allowed to
21st century
produce an electric efficiency of
4% only.
With the rise of semiconductors
In the 1950s the world
in 1941, Russel S Ohl described a
had less than a watt of
process of forming silicon ingots
solar cells powering
that led to the first P-N junction
electrical equipment.
cell. Ohl cut a section from the
Fast-forward to the 21st
ingot including the top, barrier,
century, 50 years of
and bottom portions, and
continued discovery and
attached electrodes to the top
development of silicon
and bottom portions, yielding the
and other PV materials
first silicon solar cell.
and still ongoing, today
solar panels provide
electricity to millions of
houses worldwide, power
up buildings, satellites
and provide clean energy
all around the world.
Cabrera Arellano Nara Galyn 510
Bakhtiari, A. (2021, octubre 8). History and the development of photovoltaics. AESOLAR. https://ae-
solar.com/history-of-solar-module/
Chu, E., Lawrence Tarazano, D., Patent, U. S., & Trademark Office. (2019, abril 22). A brief history of solar panels.
Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/brief-history-solar-panels-180972006/
