· When was
the first technology of Solar Power introduced?
1839 – The “beginning”
of solar power technology: Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, a French physicist,
discovered that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric
current when exposed to light. This is known as the photovoltaic effect.
1883 – American
inventor, Charles Edgar Fritts, used Becquerel’s discovery and described the
first solar cell made from selenium. However, it only had an efficiency of
around 1%.
· How has
Solar Power technology improved over the years?
1894 – Charles Fritts
built the first large area solar cell by pressing a layer of selenium between
ultrathin layers of gold.
1941 – Russell
Shoemaker Ohl, a semiconductor researcher at Bell Labs, invented the silicon
solar cell.
1954 - The first
practical silicon solar cell with an efficiency of about 6% was created by a
team of scientists working together at Bell Labs. They worked for several
months on improving the properties of the silicon solar cells. They
demonstrated their solar panel by using it to power a small toy Ferris Wheel
and a solar powered radio transmitter.
1958 – Hoffman
Electronics achieved 9% efficient PV cells and two years later, it achieved 14%. 1980 – At the
University of Delaware, the first thin-film solar cell exceeds 10% efficiency.
1992 –
Researchers at University of South Florida developed a thin-film photovoltaic
cell made of cadmium telluride which was about 15.9% efficient.
1994 – The
National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a solar cell, made from gallium
indium phosphide and gallium arsenide, which was the first to be able to exceed
30% conversion efficiency.
1999 – The National Renewable Energy Laboratory achieved a new
efficiency record for thin-film photovoltaic solar cells.
2007 – The
University of Delaware achieved a 42.8% efficiency solar power technology.
· Solar Power Technology - Before & After
Before:
Early solar designs were conventional heating systems with solar panels instead of a boiler. The result was temperatures that were too high, too many solar collectors, too many heat exchangers, storage tanks that took up too much space, cost that was too high and poor cost benefit.
After:
The new improved designs use radiant heating, low temperatures, simplicity, integral storage and they have multiple uses for the solar energy. The new benefits are better efficiency, few solar collectors, lower cost, greater architectural flexibility, better reliability and excellent cost performance.
References:
Before & After: http://www.radiantsolar.com/solar_technology_improvements.php?PRINTERFRIENDLY=ON
