Governors' Wind Energy Coalition
Why America Doesn’t Really Make Solar Panels Anymore
Source: By Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic • Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2021
America invented silicon solar cells in the 1950s. It spent more on solar R&D than any other country in the 1980s. It lost its technological advantage anyway.
American researchers experimented with unconventional solar-energy designs, such as this thermoelectric panel. (Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group / Getty)
You wouldn’t know it today, but the silicon photovoltaic solar cell—the standard, black-and-copper solar panel you can find on suburban rooftops and solar farms—was born and raised in America.