The world’s first photovoltaic cell was built for first in the far 1839 by the French physicist Becquerel, who was only 19 years old then. 48 years after that, in 1887, Heinrich Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect and this discovery was used by the Russian scientist Aleksandr Stoletov to create the first photoelectric cell based on it.

At their beginning photovoltaic cells were highly expensive and too inefficient, with just 1% efficiency. But in the following years they were strongly researched which led to increasing their efficiency and decreasing their price. Nowadays they’re fully affordable and find various applications, from generating solar energy in huge photovoltaic power stations to household battery chargers and energy source for many gadgets and devices. One of these devices is the Solar Powered Fan by Goldmaster. It is powered by solar panel with adjustable angle and connected to the fan via extendable wire. The fan has comparatively small dimensions of 14 x 14 cm (5.5 x 5.5 inches), which makes it questionable whether is it sufficient to cool entire room. But probably 2 or 3 devices could fix such problem. The panel is 14 cm long and 6.3 cm wide (5.5 x 2.5 inches).

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