Charles Fritts (1850–1903) was an American inventor who created the first working selenium cell in 1883, coating selenium with a thin layer of gold to form a semiconductor. Although these cells had low electrical efficiency of about 1%, they were used in early applications like light sensors in cameras and in the first rooftop solar array installed in 1884 in New York City, as noted by CleanTechnica. A photo attributed by Bellingcat shows the cells on George Cove's laboratory roof. Practical solar power advanced with Russell Ohl's development of silicon P/N junction cells in 1941, which improved efficiencies beyond 5%, leading to modern silicon cells reaching over 40% efficiency by 2006 and averaging 21% in 2022.
Aug 16 2023See also
Further reading
- Fritts, C. E. (1883). "On a New Form of Selenium Photocell". American Journal of Science. 26: 465. (link)
References
according to Marius Paulescu etc. al., Weather Modeling and Forecasting of PV System Operations, Springer Verlag 2013, S. 1 ↩
Meyers, Glenn (December 31, 2014). "Photovoltaic Dreaming 1875-1905: First Attempts At Commercializing PV". CleanTechnica. Archived from the original on June 9, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20180609025220/https://cleantechnica.com/2014/12/31/photovoltaic-dreaming-first-attempts-commercializing-pv-hi/ ↩
Postma, Foeke (August 16, 2023). "Untangling the Mystery of the World's First Rooftop Solar Panel". bellingcat. Retrieved August 17, 2023. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/08/16/untangling-the-mystery-of-the-worlds-first-rooftop-solar-panel/ ↩
"Microsoft Word - PV Report 2006.doc" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2007. Retrieved June 17, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070614020115/http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/doc/report/PV_Status_Report_2006.pdf ↩
Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE, [ https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/de/documents/publications/studies/Photovoltaics-Report.pdf "Photovoltaics Report"], 2023-02-21, page 30 https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/de/documents/publications/studies/Photovoltaics-Report.pdf ↩