In 1839, a French scientist by the name of Edmund Becquerel was experimenting with an

electrochemical cell when he discovered something interesting.

When he exposed it to light, it produced an electrical current.

For over a hundred years, this was mostly a scientific curiosity.

However, with the advent of the Space Age, this curiosity began to find practical uses.

Learn more about solar cells and solar power, it's history and how it works on this

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Solar power started out with very modest beginnings.

As I noted in the introduction, the discovery of the photovoltaic effect dates back to 1839.

Edmund Beckerel was experimenting with a liquid electro electrochemical cell and he found that when he exposed

it to sunlight a very weak current would be produced. This was interesting and Beckerrel

documented what he found but he neither understood why it was happening nor did he realize

any practical use for what he discovered. I should note he was only 19 years old

when he made this discovery. Nothing was done with this fact for decades. It wasn't until the late

1870s and early 1880s that a host of experiments were done with the

element selenium. In 1873 an English engineer by the name of

Willoughby Smith found that Salenium exhibited a photovoltaic effect.

And in 1893, an American inventor named Charles Fritz created the first real solar cell by putting a thin layer of gold on a thin layer of selenium.

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