Solar Education Station
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"We are very satisfued that we chose Meridian. Hunter was very helpful. Jason, our installation leader, was absolutely terrific and Tony, our project leader, was extremely responsive and customer-oriented. You have a great team and we would recommend Meridian to anyone interested in solar panels."
D. Knight
Did You Know
There are 25 cities that are participating in the Department of Energy's Solar America Cities initiative. Three of these cities are San Antonio, Houston and Austin.
History of Solar Electricity
The history of light-electricity conversion—known as the photovoltaic (PV) effect—can be traced back to the year 1839, when a French scientist named Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel first observed the phenomenon. Over the following decades it was recorded by many other scientists, but Albert Einstein was the first to study PV theory in-depth. In 1923 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in the field.
Still, it was not until the 1950’s that PV technology began to bloom. Scientists from Bell Laboratories developed the silicon-based solar cells that are the basis of today’s PV cell technology. Once those cells began successfully powering orbital satellites during the space race, the future of the technology was certain.
Unfortunately, the cost of solar cells was still too high for broader use until the 1970’s, when Dr. Elliot Berman refined the manufacturing process of solar cells by using lower grade silicon and cheaper materials. His cells were five times less expensive, making them affordable for off-grid applications such as offshore platforms.
In the 1980’s, Swiss engineer Marcus Real promoted the installation of solar systems on the rooftops of residential and commercial buildings as a more economical option than centralized solar-cell power plants.
Today, solar cells continue to become more cost effective through technological improvements from public research institutions such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and private corporations. Recently, many governments and utility providers have implemented financial incentives to promote the growth and integration of solar technology.
Click on the links below for specific information on key events in the lifecycle of photovoltaic technology.
1800’s
1839: The initial discovery of the photovoltaic effect by French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel.
1873: Willoughby Smith discovered the photovoltaic effect in selenium.
1876: William G. Adams and his student R.E. Day discovered that illuminating a junction between selenium and platinum provided a photovoltaic effect.
1883: Charles Fritts, an American inventor, first described the solar cells based on selenium wafers.
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1900-1950
1904: The theoretical explanation of the photovoltaic effect was authored by Albert Einstein.
1916: Robert Millikan experimentally proved Einstein’s theoretical explanation.
1923: Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for his work on the photovoltaic effect.
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1950-Present
1953: Gerald Pearson from Bell Laboratories, while researching silicon for electronic applications, inadvertently created the first silicon based solar cell that was much more efficient than selenium based solar cells. The efficiency of their current solar cells was raised from 4.5% to 6% in a few months.
1955: Hoffman Electronics’ Semiconductor Division introduced solar cells for commercial applications with a 2% efficiency, at a cost of $1785 per watt. Several years later, the company raised their efficiency to 8%.
1958: The Vanguard I—the first satellite powered by solar cells—was launched.
1962: Bell laboratories launched the first telecommunications satellite powered by solar cells.
1963: Sharp Corporation developed the first solar module using a series of silicon solar cells. Japan installed the world’s largest photovoltaic array on a lighthouse with a capacity of 242 watts.
1977: The Solar Energy Research Institute opened in Golden, Colorado. The institute was later renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
1981: The first ever solar powered plane, the Solar Challenger, took off. A 90.4 kW solar system was installed at Lovington Square Shopping Center in New Mexico. A 97.6 kW system was also installed at a high school in Beverly, Massachusetts.
1995: Joint venture by Amoco and Enron announced their intention to use amorphous silicon modules for utility- scale photovoltaic applications.
1996: The U.S. Department of Energy opened the National Center for Photovoltaics in Golden, Colorado.
1998: Subhendu Guha, a scientist noted for his pioneer work in amorphous silicon, led the invention of flexible solar shingles, a roofing material and state-of-the-art technology for converting sunlight into electricity on buildings.
1999:
- Construction completed on 4 Times Square in New York, New York. The office building had more energy-efficient features than any other commercial skyscraper and included building-integrated photovoltaic panels on the 37th - 43rd floors, on the south and west facing facades, to produce part of electricity needed for the building.
- Spectrolab, Inc., and NREL develop a 32.3% efficient solar cell. The high efficiency resulted from combining three layers of photovoltaic materials into a single cell.
- Researchers at NREL developed a record-breaking prototype solar cell that measured 18.8% efficiency, topping the previous record for thin-film cells by more than 1%. Worldwide, installed photovoltaic capacity reached 1000 megawatts.
2000:
- First Solar began production at the Perrysburg, Ohio photovoltaic manufacturing plant. It could produce enough solar panels each year to generate 100 megawatts of power.
- Astronauts began installing solar panels at the International Space Station, on the largest solar power array deployed in space. Each "wing" of the array consisted of 32,800 solar cells.
2001: BP and BP Solar announced the first U.S. BP Connect gasoline retail and convenience store. The Indianapolis, Indiana service station features a solar-electric canopy. The canopy contains translucent photovoltaic modules made of thin film silicon integrated into glass.
2007: National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Boeing Spectrolab created the High-Efficiency Metamorphic Multijunction Concentrator Solar Cell, or HEMM solar cell which achieved the highest efficiency level of any photovoltaic device to date. The HEMM solar cell broke the 40% conversion efficiency barrier, making it twice as efficient as a typical silicon cell.
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