Solar Cell

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts light directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. The effect was first demonstrated in 1839 by the French physicist Edmond Becquerel, then only nineteen years old, and the first solid-state photovoltaic cells followed in 1876 and 1883 from William Grylls Adams and Richard Evans Day, and from Charles Fritts. The first practical, usable photovoltaic cell was developed at Bell Laboratories in 1954 by Calvin Fuller, Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson, and solar cells reached wider prominence after their use to power the Vanguard I satellite in 1958.