
It’s fun to use mini solar cells to charge your
gear or power small gadgets, and once you’ve
learned the basics you can scale up to bigger
panels. Let’s explore ways you can harness
solar energy for your own DIY projects — mobile,
wearable, or otherwise — and say goodbye to
(some) batteries and plugging things in!
EARLY SOLAR ENERGY
While the first solar electric panel is credited
to Bell Labs in 1954, there have been a variety
of other solar-powered devices for hundreds of
years. The cell produced by Bell chemist Calvin
Fuller and physicists Daryl Chapin and Gerald
Pearson was the first silicon solar cell, following
their success with semiconductors ...