Meet the solar panel founder: Edmond Becquerel
Becquerel built a device that used the photovoltaic effect to explain the chemical action of light.
MOSAIC-INDONESIA.COM – Edmond Becquerel was only 19 years old, when he realized that the experiment he was conducting had successfully generated an electric current voltage. The French physicist exposed two electrodes to various kinds of light. Those electrodes were coated with two light-sensitive materials: silver chloride and silver bromide.
As reported by Wikipedia, in 1839, Becquerel conducted his research inside a black box whose interior was coated with an acid solution. The result of that simple test showed that an increase in light intensity was always followed by an increase in electrical power in the light-sensitive material—a phenomenon later termed the photovoltaic effect.
For scientists of his time, Becquerel was far more than just the author describing the photovoltaic effect, which back then had not yet been applied for energy needs. In the midst of the birth of photography, Becquerel built a device that used the photovoltaic effect to explain the chemical action of light. His skill as an experimenter in electricity and the properties of light made him a bridge connecting physics, chemistry, meteorology, and even medicine.
Smithsonian Magazine writes that several decades later, French mathematician Augustin Mouchot was inspired by the physicist's work. He began filing patents for solar-powered machines in the 1860s. From France to the United States, inventors were inspired by the mathematician's patents and filed patents for solar-powered devices from 1888 onward.
In 1883, New York inventor Charles Fritts created the first solar cell by coating selenium with a thin layer of gold. Fritts reported that the selenium module produced a current that was continuous, constant, and of considerable strength. This cell achieved an energy conversion rate of 1 to 2 percent. Most modern solar cells operate with 15 to 20 percent efficiency.
Fritts was able to create a solar cell with a low energy impact. Nevertheless, his discovery remains recorded as the beginning of photovoltaic solar panel innovation in America. "Photovoltaic" is inspired by the name of the Italian physicist, chemist, and pioneer of electricity and energy, Alessandro Volta. The term was chosen to describe the more technical process of converting light energy into electricity and is used interchangeably with the term "photoelectric."
Just a few years later, precisely in 1888, the next inventor, Edward Weston, successfully converted energy radiation from the sun into electrical energy, or through electrical energy into mechanical energy.
Weston succeeded in focusing light energy through a lens (f) onto a solar cell (a) that used thermopile material (an electronic device that converts thermal energy into electrical energy) composed of rods of different metals. This light heated the solar cell and caused electrons to be released and current to flow. In this case, light produced heat, which produced electricity. This process was the antithesis—the opposite—of how an incandescent light bulb works, which converts electricity into heat to then produce light.
In the same year, a Russian scientist named Aleksandr Stoletov created the first solar cell based on the photoelectric effect, which is when light falls on a material and electrons are released. This effect was first observed by German physicist Heinrich Hertz. In his research, Hertz found that more power was generated by ultraviolet light than by visible light.
Today, solar cells use the photoelectric effect to convert sunlight into energy. In 1894, American inventor Melvin Severy received patents 527,377 for an "Apparatus for mounting and operating thermopiles" and 527,379 for an "Apparatus for generating electricity by solar heat." Both patents were essentially early solar cells based on the discovery of the photoelectric effect.
The first produced "electricity through the action of solar heat on a thermopile" and could produce a constant electric current during the daily and yearly movement of the sun, freeing anyone from the necessity of moving the thermopile according to the sun's movement. Severy's second patent from 1889 was also intended to use the sun's thermal energy to generate electricity for heat, light, and power.
The "thermospile," or solar cell as we call it now, was mounted on a stand so it could be controlled in the vertical direction as well as on a turntable, allowing it to move in the horizontal plane. "By the combination of these two movements, the face of the thermopile can be maintained opposite the sun all the time and in all seasons," states the patent.
Almost a decade later, American inventor Harry Reagan received a patent for a thermal battery—a structure used to store and release thermal energy. The thermal battery was invented to collect and store heat by having a large mass that could heat up and release energy.
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This technology does not store electricity but "heat"; however, current systems use this technology to generate electricity through conventional turbines. In 1897, Reagan was granted U.S. patent 588,177 for the "application of solar heat to thermo-batteries." Reagan stated in his patent claims that his invention encompassed a "novel construction of apparatus" where sunlight is utilized to heat the thermal battery.
Around the 1970s, an energy crisis emerged in the United States. Congress passed the Solar Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974. The federal government was more committed than ever to making solar energy viable and affordable and marketing it to the public.
After the launch of "Solar One," the public began to see solar energy as an option for their homes. Growth slowed in the 1980s due to declining traditional energy prices. However, in the following decades, the federal government became more involved in solar energy research and development through stimulus grants and tax incentives for those using solar systems.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar energy has had an average annual growth rate of 50 percent in the last 10 years in the United States, largely due to the Solar Investment Tax Credit enacted in 2006. Solar energy installations are also more affordable now, as installation costs have dropped by more than 70 percent in the last decade.
