Table J Land Use for Photovoltaics Cost of photovoltaics and market trends Photovoltaics (PV) were first made useful for powering transmitters on artificial satellites. The first US satellite was solar powered and transmitted several months, as compared to the first Sputnik, which was battery powered and transmitted for only a couple of weeks. So in the beginning of the solar age, PV was optimized for use in space. As with other space hardware, PV was expensive, since it had to be carefully manufactured and tested to be space-worthy. Early use of PV in space quickly turned up problems with radiation damage, atomic oxygen damage and plasma charging. PV for use in space is still about $1000 per Watt. In the late 1960s, PV began to be manufactured for use on Earth. Terrestrial PV can meet much less stringent requirements than space PV, so it is less expensive to manufacture. Early PV manufacture still required development though and the market for PV on Earth was yet to be created. The military was interested in it for use remote systems. The established community of energy companies and utilities had been lead to believe that nuclear power was going to meet all our future energy needs. They scoffed at PV. The cost of PV remained high (perhaps $50 to $100/W), even in the late 1970s as the Carter administration began pushing for more use of renewable energy. In order to get people to use PV or other RE, subsidies and tax breaks had to be given. During the 1980s a quiet solar revolution occurred. Helping the revolution along were the down-turn in interest in nuclear power and the increasing energy efficiency of lights and appliances. But perhaps the largest effect, was the realization that, unlike the US, much of the world has no large power infrastructure of 1000 MW generators and miles of wire. PV is just ideal for remote power systems. With the prospect of trillion dollar markets opening up, PV manufacturers jumped into the world market with gusto and began to penetrate the market to places where they can sell a panel or two to millions of people with no other means of getting or affording electricity.
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