Around 100 B.C., on the outskirts of Rome, workshops equipped with cutting-edge technology were emerging: glassworks. Here, using the technique of glassblowing, sheets were manufactured to be applied to windows. This invention radically changed human life, allowing for full use of sunlight and heat. Two thousand years later, another continuously developing technology, photovoltaics, follows the same path, making the sun a crucial renewable energy source for the ongoing energy transition.
A century of light: the long road to photovoltaic cells
The history of solar energy and electricity intertwines between the 18th and 19th centuries. While scientists like Faraday and Volta unveiled the secrets of electricity and electromagnetism, French physicist Antoine Cesar Becquerel, in 1839, observed an extraordinary phenomenon: some materials, when exposed to sunlight, generated a weak electric current. Without fully realizing it, he had discovered the photoelectric effect, later defined as such by Italian professor Antonio Pacinotti, who, together with his student Augusto Righi, paved the way for studies conducted at the beginning of the century by Albert Einstein. It was not until the mid-20th century, with the development of semiconductors and transistors, that solar energy started transitioning from scientific curiosity to a tangible energy source. In 1953, Bell Laboratories introduced the first photovoltaic cell.
