AGS-Energy
Building a new World with environmentally clean and renewable energy technologies
Solar History Major milestones in the development of photovoltaic technology are the following: - 1839 Becquerel discovered photovoltaic effect by showing that the electrical conduction of metals improved when illuminated with light. - 1870 Willoughby Smith and William Adams demonstrated photovoltaic effect with a Selenium-Platinum junction (first solar cell) - 1918 Jan Czochralski discovered a method for producing ingots of single crystal silicon. - 1950 Bell Laboratories in the USA made advancements with silicon solar cells towards commercialization. - 1960 Germanium modules with 14 % efficiency were made. Solar cells used to power space sattelites. - 1964 Sharp Corporation developed & installed first commercially viable silicon solar cells. - 1970 More applications such as domestic systems of power in remote areas, telecom repeater stations to boost mobile phone signals, powering water pumps, meteorological stations using solar power. - 1990 Cell efficiency surpassed 20%, price dropped, grid-connected photovoltaic powered homes started becoming popular. - Exponential growth observed for the last 15 years in photovoltaic cell manufacturing capacity & sales. Photovoltaics is especially suitable in places where there is lots of sunshine and remote areas requiring expensive transport of diesel or other fuels for powering homes & industry. Also for the environmentally conscious communities solar energy is indispensible because it is a clean renewable energy source with almost no directly caused greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable Energy Products and Services in New Mexico |
