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Who Invented Solar Panels? Compare quotes from up to 7 installers in your area now. This crack, which had probably formed when the sample was made, actually marked the boundary between regions containing different levels of impurities, so one side was positively doped and the other side negatively doped.
Ohl had inadvertently made a p-n junction, the basis of a solar cell. Excess positive charge builds up on one side of the p-n barrier, and excess negative charge builds up on the other side of the barrier, creating an electric field. When the cell is hooked up in a circuit, an incoming photon that hits the cell can then give an electron a kick and start current flowing. Ohl patented his solar cell, which was about one percent efficient.
The first practical silicon solar cell was created thirteen years later by a team of scientists working together at Bell Labs. In , engineer Daryl Chapin, who had previously been working on magnetic materials at Bell Labs, was trying to develop a source of power for telephone systems in remote humid locations, where dry cell batteries degraded too quickly. Chapin investigated several alternative energy sources, and settled on solar power as one of the most promising.
He tried selenium solar cells, but found them too inefficient. Meanwhile, Calvin Fuller, a chemist, and Gerald Pearson, a physicist, were working on controlling the properties of semiconductors by introducing impurities.
Fuller gave Pearson a piece of silicon containing gallium impurities. Pearson dipped it in lithium, creating a p-n junction. The potential for using the sun to directly supply our power needs is huge.
Once made, solar panels can generate electricity without any waste or pollution. This means that there is no dependence on the Earths natural resources. They have no moving parts so modules are very reliable and have a long life span. Also, solar panels are relatively easy to install and are very low maintenance. A useful characteristic of solar photovoltaic power generation is that any scale of installation is possible. Day worked on this aspect and observed the same effect in solidified selenium.
Besides, they also published a paper on the selenium cell. Following these two, several scientists worked on this to understand more about selenium and photovoltaic effect. It was the American inventor Charles Fritts who built the first genuine solar cell. He built it by placing a layer of selenium on a metal plate and covering it with a thin layer of gold.
Though a couple of scientists were curious about this invention, most scientists paid little attention. Perhaps, so little was their knowledge on solar energy. In those times, since there were better technologies to generate electricity, the PV technology failed to attract the masses. In fact, in modern terms, it was a flop.
It was Albert Einstein who made a major breakthrough in the development of solar technology. He set his mind to understand how light could possibly create electricity when it hit a metal. Einstein knocked down everyone with his terrific explanation. He explained that light was made of tiny packets of energy called photons.
He also elaborated on how photons wiggled like waves as they sped along. Einstein proposed that these photons are more powerful in ultraviolet light that in the normal light that we can see.
He also added that these photons have enough energy to knock the loose electrons off some materials like silicon and selenium. These knocked out free electrons move through wires as electric current or electricity.
After testing these ideas, many scientists were convinced. It was for these ideas that Einstein won a Nobel Prize.
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