Bell Labs Comes Full Circle: The world’s most efficient solar cells will power the original solar developer

In 1954, Bell Labs pioneered the development of solar power technology, creating solar panels able to provide enough power to support the telephone service to a 1950s farming family. Approximately 56 years later, SunPower, in conjunction with Alcatel-Lucent and ConEdison Development, will install a 1.2 MW ground-mounted solar power system at Bell Labs’ global headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

Occupying six acres of the 200-acre Bell Labs campus, the SunPower system will generate approximately $2.5 million in cost savings over the next 15 years, which is the equivalent to the amount of energy required to power more than 200 average New Jersey homes on an annual basis.

At SunPower, our president and founder Dr. Richard Swanson has studied up on the early days of the solar industry and is excited about the implications of this installation. Swanson said “SunPower is proud to install this system at Bell Labs, the birthplace of many seminal technologies such as the transistor. Bell Labs is also the birthplace of the first practical solar cell in 1954. Now, 56 years later, solar cells have become one of the fastest growing sources of clean electrical power, so it is fitting that this national treasure is turning to solar cell technology for its power.”