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1988
• Dr. Alvin Marks received patents for two solar power technologies that he had developed: Lepcon and
Lumeloid. Lepcon consists of glass panels covered with a vast array of millions of aluminium or copper
strips, each less than a micron or thousandth of a millimeter wide. As sunlight hits the metal strips, the
energy in the light is transferred to electrons in the metal, which escape at one end in the form of electricity.
Lumeloid uses a similar approach but substitutes cheaper, film-like sheets of plastic for the glass panels
and covers the plastic with conductive polymers, long chains of molecular plastic units.
• The Dye-sensitized solar cell was created by Michael Grätzel with support from Brian O’Regan (chemist).
These photoelectrochemical cells work from an organic dye compound inside the cell.
• Management of Photowatt bought back major share from Chronar France.

1989
• Reflective solar concentrators were first used with solar cells.
• ARCO Solar increased the thin film system production capacities in Camarillo, California to 7 MW per year.
ARCO Solar opened production in Japan and German.
• Astropower Corporation became an independent company under Allen Barnett.

8.4 Solar Thermal 1980-1989

Key points from the IEA SHC data:
• For the 1980’s the IEA SHC has data from Australia, Austria, Canada and the USA.
• Austria was installing a few evacuated tube collectors however this represented less than 0.06% of the
total installations in 1980 with the highest contribution in the decade being 0.22% in 1988.
• Figure 34 shows the combined annual installed capacity for the four countries.

Figure 34: Annual recorded installed solar water panels capacity 1980-1989
Source: IEA SHC

1980
• The USA Solar Rating & Certification Corporation (SRCC) founded as a non-profit by industry associations
and a national consortium of U.S. state energy offices and regulatory bodies https://solar-rating.org/
company/about-us/
• First meeting of Standards Australia Technical committee CS028 Solar Heating and Cooling chaired by
Wal Read. Ken Guthrie became the second Chair in early 1990s. Many standards published in Australia
and New Zealand, some of which became the basis for ISO Standards.
• ISO TC180 Solar Energy first met. Standards Australia has maintained the secretariat since that
time. 19 standards have been published by ISO TC180 and its subcommittees. https://www.iso.org/
committee/54018.html

ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions | 143