60 Year Old Solar Panel Still Works

[tinrobot]

After gathering dust for 60 years, one of the first modern solar cells ever built was recently uncovered and sold at auction. It still works! Take whatever that original Energizer bunny was claiming in 1989 and add another "...and going."

Solar technologies have been around since the 19th century, but this British orb, made in 1950, is one of the earliest junction semiconductor solar cells ever created. An unknown tinkerer in Surrey, England, created it to prove to his friends that he wasn't a loon with all his solar talk. Not a loon at all, it seems. Perhaps even a visionary.

Well maybe not that, either. Solar cells are still largely inefficient and are still being refined significantly today. This six decade old device generates only 1.5 volts of electricity. But the fact that it's working at all just goes to show that sun is a pretty reliable partner in this whole energy-making endeavor.

http://gizmodo.com/5514060/60-year-old-solar-panel-still-works

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....and the solar panel didn't need to be relicensed when it hit 60.

[NNadir]

1. Probably because it was isolated from light and didn't suffer Stabler-Wronski degradation.

They work great if you keep them in the dark for a long period of time, less well if they're exposed to, um, the weather.

[Ian David]

4. Solar panels being developed to probe the sun's corona will put an end to all that.

This year at BosKone, there was a lecturer from NASA who told us they had solar panels that could fly within 3 solar radii of the Sun without degrading.

Pretty sure this is the mission he was talking about:

http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/solarprobe_mission.htm

If I'm not mistaken, they've changed the profile from a short 3RS mission to a much longer 9 RS mission that will gather more data. But I could be thinking of a different solar probe mission.

[TheWraith]

6. Puts me in mind of the movie "Sunshine."

A surprisingly well done film.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. True, but it's still pretty cool

Like unearthing an old brass telescope in the loft and finding the lenses intact. It's no Hubble, but still a nice bit of history.

[FBaggins]

2. Solar "panel" ?

An odd term to use for a sphere.

[marybourg]

3. My solar panels (for a hot water system) had been heating away

for 30 years on my AZ roof in perfect working order and with excellent appearance. They were taken down because the new system came with its own new panel. 1 new panel replaced the 2 I formerly had.