AUTHOR: David Faiman is emeritus professor of physics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In 1977 he founded the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics at the University's then newly established Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Sede Boqer in the Negev Desert. In 1986 he participated in the creation of Israel's Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center there, which he headed until his retirement in 2013. Faiman's particular research specialties included: methods for the accurate measurement of solar radiation; methods for the conversion of solar energy to thermal and/or electrical energy, the latter via the use of novel materials; system design and economics, with special emphasis on concentrator photovoltaics. Among the Center's activities was the hosting of a sesquiennial symposium on solar electricity production at which a number of major scientists and engineers presented keynote lectures on the state of the art in their respective fields of specialty. It is a selection of those lectures, which characterize a living history of the development of solar electric power systems, while it was happening, and in the words of the people who made it happen, that constitute the present series of volumes.

Volume 2 : 20th Century Photovoltaic Systems

SUMMARY: This is the second volume of a 3-volume history of solar power generating systems covering the approximately 50 years of research and development surrounding the energy crisis of 1973. Volume 1 covered solar-thermal systems. The present volume covers photovoltaic systems in the 20th century. Volume 3 will cover photovoltaic developments from the start of the 21st century. The history is based upon keynote lectures given by international specialists at the Sede Boqer Symposia on Solar Electric Power Production, a series that commenced in 1986. The lectures document many technical details that have become hard to find, including some pertaining to technologies that were successfully demonstrated but subsequently discontinued owing to their not having been deemed to be cost-effective at the time. However, in the event that different economic considerations may ensue, these volumes can provide a valuable starting point, including references, for the re-investigation of some of those once abandoned ideas.