History Of Solar Panel Price

A brief history of solar panels.

History of solar panel price.

The term solar panel is used colloquially for a photo voltaic pv module. Since the beginning of life on earth the sun has been the ultimate source of all energy. Changes in solar panel cost over time can be explained by swanson s law which states that the price of solar pv modules decreases by about 20 percent for every doubling in global solar capacity the law is named after richard swanson founder of high. In 1956 solar panels cost roughly 300 per watt.

Elliot berman s research in the 1970s which produced a less expensive solar cell and brought solar panel cost down to about 20 per watt. A pv module is an assembly of photo voltaic cells mounted in a framework for installation. The history of solar panels can be described by becquerel s discovery of photovoltaic effect or the invention of first solar cell by chapin fuller and pearson in bell labs. The use of solar panels in the space program through the 1960s increased production and slowly the price reduced to around 100 per watt.

Today a solar panel can cost as little as 0 50 a watt. Photo voltaic cells use sunlight as a source of energy and generate direct current electricity a collection of pv modules is called a pv panel and a system of panels is an array. But in the next decades the federal government was more involved with solar energy. By 1975 that figure had dropped to just over 100 a watt.

Since the year 1980 solar panel prices have dropped by at least 10 percent every single year.