Short answers, pulled from the story.
Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839 while working in his father's laboratory. He observed that voltage between two metal electrodes rose when exposed to light within an electrolyte solution.
Solar cells first powered a satellite when NASA launched Vanguard 1 in 1958. Explorer 6 followed by 1959 with large wing-shaped arrays containing 9600 Hoffman solar cells.
Crystalline silicon dominates today's market with ninety-five percent share. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline variants make up this majority through single-crystal or cast square ingot processes.
China commands over eighty percent of all manufacturing stages for solar panels today. The International Energy Agency reported China invested more than fifty billion dollars since 2011 creating around three hundred thousand jobs.
A four-junction concentrator cell achieved forty-seven point six percent efficiency under 665-fold sunlight concentration in 2022. Fraunhofer Institute researchers demonstrated this result in Freiburg, Germany.