History of solar cells

The term "Photovoltaics" comes from Greek, meaning light, voltage and electricity. It comes from the name of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volt. After Alessandro Volt, "volt" is used as a unit of voltage.
In terms of the history of solar energy development, the "light generating electricity" behavior caused by light irradiation on materials has been discovered as early as the 19th century.
In 1839, the photovoltaic effect was first discovered by the French physicist A.E. Becquerel. The term "light volt" appeared in English in 1849.
In 1883, the first solar cell was successfully prepared by Charles Frits. Charles covered a thin layer of gold on a selenium semiconductor to form a semiconductor metal junction. The efficiency of the device is only 1%.
By the 1930s, the exposure meter of cameras widely used the principle of light and electricity.
In 1946, Russell Ohl applied for the manufacturing patent of modern solar cells.
In the 1950s, with the gradual understanding of the physical properties of semiconductors and the progress of processing technology, the first solar cell was born in Bell Labs in 1954 after Bell Labs in the United States found that the silicon was more sensitive to light after adding a certain amount of impurities in the experiment with semiconductors. The era of solar cell technology has finally arrived.
Since the 58s of the 20th century, satellites launched by the United States have used solar cells as a source of energy.
In the 1970s, when the energy crisis occurred, countries around the world realized the importance of energy development.
In 1973, the oil crisis occurred, and people began to transfer the application of solar cells to general livelihood purposes.
In the United States, Japan, Israel and other countries, a large number of solar energy devices have been used and are moving towards the goal of commercialization.
Among these countries, the United States established the world's largest solar power plant in California in 1983, with a power generation capacity of up to 16 million watts. South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and other countries in southern Africa have also set up special projects to encourage remote rural areas to install low-cost solar cell power generation systems.
Japan is the first country to promote solar power generation. In 1994, Japan implemented a subsidy and reward system to promote the "municipal parallel solar photovoltaic energy system" of 3000 watts per household. In the first year, the government subsidized 49% of the funds, and the subsequent subsidies decreased year by year. The "parallel solar photovoltaic energy system with mains power" is a solar cell that provides electricity for its own load when the sun is sufficient. If there is surplus electricity, it will be stored separately. When the power generation is insufficient or not, the required power will be provided by the power company. By 1996, there were 2600 solar power generation systems installed in Japan, with a total installed capacity of 8 million watts. One year later, there were 9400 units and the total installed capacity reached 32 million watts. With the rising awareness of environmental protection and the system of government subsidies, it is estimated that the demand for solar cells for domestic use in Japan will also increase rapidly.
In China, the solar power industry has also been strongly encouraged and supported by the government. In March 2009, the Ministry of Finance announced that it would subsidize large-scale solar energy projects such as solar photovoltaic buildings.