Charles Fritts
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Charles Fritts (1850 – 1903) was the American
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
credited with creating the first working
selenium cell A copper indium gallium selenide solar cell (or CIGS cell, sometimes CI(G)S or CIS cell) is a thin-film solar cell used to convert sunlight into electric power. It is manufactured by depositing a thin layer of copper indium gallium selenide soluti ...
in 1883. The world's first rooftop
solar array A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and co ...
, using Fritts' selenium cells, was installed in 1884 on a New York City rooftop. Fritts coated the
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
material
selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...
with an extremely thin layer of gold. The resulting cells had a conversion
electrical efficiency The efficiency of a system in electronics and electrical engineering is defined as useful power output divided by the total electrical power consumed (a fractional expression), typically denoted by the Greek small letter eta (η – ήτα). : ...
of only about 1% owing to the properties of selenium, which in combination with the material's high cost prevented the use of such cells for energy supply. Selenium cells found other applications however, for example as light sensors for exposure timing in photo cameras, where they were common well into the 1960s. Solar cells later became practical for power uses after
Russell Ohl Russell Shoemaker Ohl (January 30, 1898 – March 20, 1987) was an American scientist who is generally recognized for patenting the modern solar cell (, "Light sensitive device"). Ohl was a notable semiconductor researcher prior to the invention o ...
's 1941 development of silicon P/N junction cells that reached efficiencies above 5% by the 1950s/1960s. By 2006, the best silicon solar cells were over 40% efficient, with industrial average over 17%.


See also

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Timeline of solar energy In the 19th century, it was observed that the sunlight striking certain materials generates detectable electric current – the photoelectric effect. This discovery laid the foundation for solar cells. Solar cells have gone on to be used in many ap ...
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George Cove George Cove was a Canadian inventor, known primarily for early solar electric generation equipment. Biography George Cove was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1863 or 1864. In 1904–05, Cove developed his 'solar electric generator' which he ...


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People associated with solar power 19th-century American inventors 1850 births 1903 deaths {{US-inventor-stub