Clean & renewable energy

American inventor Charles Fritts created the first commercial solar panel

Though his solar panels were very inefficient and thus not economically-viable for most uses, they were a critical early step in the development of renewable energy technology.

Alessandro Volta invents the voltaic pile, the world’s first battery

Peter Schulte / December 1, 1800

The voltaic pile became one of the first reliable sources of electricity, and that new source of study enabled many discoveries in the field, from the understanding of the electrolysis of water to the research of electric arcs.