Photovoltaic Industry Five Stage Dreams Shine into Reality

The history of solar cell development can be broadly divided into five stages: budding, climbing, growth, booming, and recession.

The budding period (1839-1955):

The marked event of this period was the discovery of the "photovoltaic effect." In 1839 when Becquerel, a 19-year-old French physicist, discovered the "photovoltaic effect." In 1954, Bell Labs developed the first practical value of silicon solar cells. The New York Times called this groundbreaking achievement "the beginning of a new era that will eventually lead to unlimited sunlight serving human civilization."

Climbing period (1959~1994):

In 1959, the first monocrystalline silicon solar cell was introduced, and in 1960, the solar cell was first realized in grid-connected operation. In 1978, 100KW photovoltaic power station was built in the United States, and the efficiency of solar energy continued to increase. Among them, the efficiency of monocrystalline silicon solar cells reached 20% in 1980, and polysilicon was 14.5%.

Growth period (1994 ~ 2007):

During the ten years from 1994 to 2004, global solar cell production increased by 17 times, and the average growth rate in the past five years exceeded 50%. After 2004, the solar cell market was fiercely competitive and the leading pattern in Europe and Japan had been broken. Despite the sales market in Europe, the production center has turned to Asia. In 2007, China's solar cell output accounted for about one-third of the world's total production, becoming the world's largest solar cell producer.

Prosperous period (from 2010 to the first half of 2011):

Demand for the suppression of the global economic crisis has gradually released since the second half of 2010, and production capacity is in short supply. By the first half of 2011, the global photovoltaic industry has witnessed a new round of booming period, and the major manufacturers have expanded their production in large numbers.

The recession period (the second half of 2011 to the end of 2012):

In the post-financial crisis era, the blind expansion of production capacity led to a serious overcapacity in the entire photovoltaic industry, and the price of polysilicon and other photovoltaic products fell by the “cliff-breaking” style.