ABSTRACT
After the 1953 discovery at Bell Laboratories of how to produce useful solar cells, converting light directly to electricity, and their first utilization was envisioned for satellites and other space projects and the research was directed to improve their efficiency to convert light to more electricity and to improve their durability in the space environment. For this application, it was important to produce more electricity from an area, long life in space and low weight. The cost of the solar cell system was not important, because whatever it was, it was negligible compared to the cost of the satellite that they powered.1Communication Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), incorpo-rated in 1963 as a publicly traded company, was created by the Congress of the USA Government in 1962 with the responsi-bility for the development of a global satellite communication 1Source material for this chapter: P. Varadi, Diary and Notes. P. Varadi (June 7-11, 2004), Lecture 19th European Photovoltaic Solar
system. COMSAT established a research laboratory in 19682and Dr. Joseph Lindmayer became the head of the physics department and I became the head of the chemistry department. Joseph was an excellent physicist and he made a great breakthrough in the efficiency of solar cells for space use. My department provided help in some of that work.The Bell Telephone system’s 1956 advertisement3 looked into the future and predicted: “The Bell Telephone Laboratories invention has great possibilities for telephone service and for all mankind.” This was true. Many great possibilities existed for the terrestrial utilization of solar cells, but the production technology developed for the solar cell’s space use resulted in prohibitively expensive solar cells for these applications. Therefore, only a small quantity of solar cells, which did not qualify for space, could be used for a few terrestrial applications. The problem was that for the wide spread of the terrestrial utilization of solar cells, a new production technology was needed to produce them inexpensively and in large quantities.The use of solar cells in space would doubtlessly increase with the increasing use of satellites and space objects, but Joseph Lindmayer and I thought that the utilization of terrestrial solar cells had an unlimited future, since humanity would need it to reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources because they would be exhausted and were environmentally harmful, and also to reduce or eliminate the utilization of nuclear energy, which was considered dangerous, and was proved that those fears were right, for example in Japan.4 The use of electricity converted from solar energy would also be the means to provide electricity for 1.6 million people, who had no electricity and for whom it was and will be almost impossible to be connected by traditional power lines. 2COMSAT Research Laboratory, Clarksburg, MD outside of Washington, DC. COMSAT headquarters was in Washington, DC. COMSAT was merged into Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications in 2000.3National Geographic Magazine, September 1956.4Fukushima, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl of 1986.
