When Was The Solar Panel Invented?

Solar panel is a group of solar cells connected together. A solar cell is a device that is able to convert energy contained in light into electrical energy through photovoltaic process.

Work on a solar cell began as early as 1839 with research undertaken by a French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel. The first person to develop a solar cell was Charles Fritts in the year 1883. However, these cells developed before the year 1941 had very poor energy conversion efficiencies often falling below one percent. In the year 1941, Russel Ohl invented the first silicon solar cell.

In the year 1954 a group of American scientists including Calvin Fuller, Gerald Pearson and Daryl Chapin developed a silicon solar cell with higher energy conversion efficiency of above six percent. They formed an array of several silicon strips placing them together to capture light energy and thus developed the first solar panel. Bell Laboratories from New York was the first company to bring out a prototype of a solar battery into the market.

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