History Of Solar Panel Price

Since the beginning of life on earth the sun has been the ultimate source of all energy.

History of solar panel price. A brief history of solar panels. In 1956 solar panels cost roughly 300 per watt. By 1975 that figure had dropped to just over 100 a watt. A pv module is an assembly of photo voltaic cells mounted in a framework for installation.

But in the next decades the federal government was more involved with solar energy. Today a solar panel can cost as little as 0 50 a watt. 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. The term solar panel is used colloquially for a photo voltaic pv module.

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. The price decreases over the past ten years are a major reason why homeowners are increasingly interested in installing solar panels. But the story is much larger than just that. 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.

Growth slowed in the 1980s due to the drop in traditional energy prices.