Bell labs announces 1st solar battery - April 25, 1954

Beginning in the 1800s scientists and inventors devised ways and theories to capture the sun’s light and convert it into a power source. In 1839, Alexander-Edmond Becquerel, a French physicist, first identified the photovoltaic effect but the first solar cell wasn’t created until 1883 by Charles Fritts. Fritts coated selenium – a semiconductor – with a layer of gold to create junctions. The cell was not very efficient. In 1946, Russell Ohl received a patent for the solar cell. But, on April 25, 1954, Bell Laboratories ushered in the age of solar technology when they announced the first solar battery.

Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chapin created the first solar battery by placing strips of silicon in the sunlight, capturing the free electrons and converting them into an electric current. From this came the first solar panels. On April 25, Bell called a press conference and stunned the media by powering a radio transmitter with voice and music with a solar powered battery. The U.S. New & World Report wrote the next day that solar batteries introduced “the beginning of a new era, leading eventually to the realization of one of mankind’s most cherished dreams – the harnessing of the almost limitless energy of the sun for the uses of civilization.”

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/33947.pdf