History of Solar

1940's

• Bell Labs produces solar PV for the U.S. Government.
• Western Electric later licenses solar cells and solar for $1,800 per watt.

1950's

• Efficiencies increase from 2% to 13%.

1960's

• Costs drop from $1,000 per watt to under a $100 per watt

1970's

• OPEC Oil Crisis
• Carter Administration focuses on domestic energy production
• Puts PV on White House
• Creates National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

1980's

• Average world oil prices fall by 50%
• Reagan takes PV off the White House.

1990's

• Increased demand for PV in Japan, Germany, Israel - leads to Kyoto Protocol.
• U.S. States become proactive: utility deregulation and Clean Energy Fund.

2000's

• Germany, Spain, Japan, U.S. become top producers of solar electric renewable energy.
• Government mandates will force utilities and companies to comply with 20% renewable energy production by 2012.
• Federal and state incentives become more readily available.

2010's

• There are now over 22,700 MW of cumulative solar electric capacity operating in the U.S., enough to power more than 4.6 million average American homes.
• The 3,727 PV systems at U.S. schools have a combined electric capacity of 490 MW, and generate roughly 642,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity every year.

2020's

• In 2020, around 139 GW of global capacity was added, bringing the total to about 760 GW and producing almost 3 percent of the world's electricity
• Solar accounted for 39% of all new electricity-generating capacity added in the U.S. in the first half of 2021