C4.4 Optical to electrical energy conversion: solar cells Tom Markvart

Photovoltaics is about to celebrate 50 years of its existence in modern era. Photochemical reactions that

produce energy from sunlight have been known for over 150 years [1] and photosensitive semiconductor

devices were discovered in the second half of the 19th century [2, 3]. It was not, however, until the 1950s

that the first practical solar cell was developed at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey [4].