Inventions & Discoveries · Energy and power
Solar cell
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect; the French physicist Edmond Becquerel built the first in 1839. The first practical photovoltaic cell was publicly demonstrated at Bell Laboratories in 1954, and by the 1960s solar cells were the main power source of most Earth-orbiting satellites. Almost all commercial cells are made of crystalline silicon, and module prices, adjusted for inflation, fell from $96 a watt in the mid-1970s to 30 cents in 2018.
On the inventions tree
- First known
- 1839
- Credited to
- Edmond Becquerel
NoteThe first practical solar cell was demonstrated at Bell Laboratories in 1954.
Built onElectric battery1800
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Solar cell. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/solar-cell
- MLA
- “Solar cell.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/solar-cell. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Solar cell.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/solar-cell.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Solar cell’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/solar-cell (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻