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1980
ARCO Solar becomes the first company to produce more than 1 megawatt (a thousand kilowatts) of photovoltaic modules in one year.
At the University of Delaware, the first thin-film solar cell exceeds 10% efficiency; it is made of copper sulphide and cadmium sulphide.
1981
Paul MacCready builds the first solar-powered aircraft — the Solar Challenger — and flies it from France to England across the English Channel. The aircraft has more than 16,000 wing-mounted solar cells producing 3,000 watts of power.
1982
The first megawatt-scale PV power station goes on line in Hisperia, California. The 1-megawatt capacity system, developed by ARCO Solar, has modules on 108 dual-axis trackers.
Australian Hans Tholstrup drives the first solar-powered car — the Quiet Achiever — almost 2,800 miles between Sydney and Perth in 20 days — 10 days faster than the first gasoline-powered car to do so. Tholstrup is the founder of a world-class solar car race, Australia's World Solar Challenge.
In California, the U.S. Department of Energy and an industry consortium begin operating Solar One, a 10-megawatt central-receiver demonstration project. It establishes the feasibility of power-tower systems, a solar-thermal electric or concentrating solar power technology. In 1988, the final year of operation, the system could be dispatched 96% of the time.
Solar Two, a 10-megawatt central receiver power tower that operated in Daggett, CA.
Volkswagen of Germany begins testing photovoltaic arrays mounted on the roofs of Dasher station wagons; the arrays generate 160 watts for the ignition system.
The Florida Solar Energy Centre’s Southeast Residential Experiment Station begins supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's photovoltaics program in the application of systems engineering.
Worldwide, photovoltaic production exceeds 9.3 megawatts.
1983
ARCO Solar dedicates a 6-megawatt photovoltaic substation in central California. The 120-acre, unmanned facility supplies Pacific Gas & Electric Company's utility grid with enough power for up to 2,500 homes.
Solar Design Associates completes a home powered by an integrated, stand-alone, 4-kilowatt photovoltaic system in the Hudson River Valley.
Worldwide, photovoltaic production exceeds 21.3 megawatts, and sales top $250 million.
1984
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District commissions its first 1-megawatt photovoltaic electricity generating facility.
1985
Researchers at the University of South Wales break the 20% efficiency barrier for silicon solar cells.
1986
The world's largest solar thermal facility is commissioned in Kramer Junction, California. The solar field contains rows of mirrors that concentrate the sun's energy onto a system of pipes circulating a heat transfer fluid. The heat transfer fluid is used to produce steam, which powers a conventional turbine to generate electricity.
This solar power plant in Kramer Junction, California, is the largest of nine built in the 1980s. Oil in the receiver tubes collects the concentrated solar energy as heat and is pumped to the power plant to generate electricity.
ARCO Solar releases the G-4000 — the world's first commercial thin-film module.
1988
Dr. Alvin Marks receives patents for two solar power technologies: Lepcon and Lumeloid. Lepcon consists of glass panels covered with millions of aluminum or copper strips, each less than a thousandth of a millimeter wide. As sunlight hits the metal strips, light energy is transferred to electrons in the metal, which escape at one end in the form of electricity. Lumeloid is similar but substitutes cheaper, film-like sheets of plastic for the glass panels and covers the plastic with conductive polymers.
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