Brief History of Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics was developed in the 1950s for spacecraft, and first 'flew' in space in 1958. It was the only non-nuclear way to produce power for satellites. Your satellite television picture is only possible because of photovoltaics.

During the 1970s and 1980s efforts were made to reduce the costs to a level suitable for use on earth. The growth of the industry has been dramatic.

Since the early 1980s, the amount of photovoltaic modules shipped per year (measured in peak MW) has grown, and the price of the modules (per peak Watt) has fallen as manufacturing volume has increased. Although the price has now somewhat stabilised, the amount of photovoltaics shipped each year continues to grow.

Over the past 5 years, photovoltaic module production and use has increased dramatically, largely because of government funding in some countries for grid-connected photovoltaic systems.