Stories of Innovation: Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Dounya Barrit, Photovoltaic reliability engineer: I love the notions of sunlight and power. Hum… I’m sure you understand where I want to go. Yes, photovoltaics ! Let’s dive in.

Welcome to Stories of Innovation, a series of podcasts from TotalEnergies. In each episode, our employees explain how the innovations that have changed the world of energy came to light. Want to find out more? Let's go!

Dounya Barrit: Let's go back in time. 1839, the French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovered how to convert light into electricity, unveiling the photovoltaic effect. Kudos to him. Forty-four years later, in 1883, American inventor Charles Fritts created the first photovoltaic cell with an efficiency of 1%. Poor, but enough to drive research forward ! The first commercial silicon cell, with a 6% efficiency, was introduced to power the radio systems of the Vanguard 1 satellite. Photovoltaic cells were then mainly used in space applications before being employed in terrestrial and earthly applications in the 1970s. Now, let's fast forward. In the 2000s, crystalline silicon technology dominated the market, with a global solar panel production at around 300 MW and a cost of $4 per Watt. Today, photovoltaic energy production reaches 300 GW, a thousand times more than in the 2000s, and today, it is also much cheaper, at only 10 to 20 cents/Watt. Well, what about the future? By 2030, solar electricity production is expected to account for 15% of global electricity production. Quite impressive, right?

Thank you for listening to Stories of Innovation. Visit totalenergies.com to discover the origins of other innovations.