Sol Voltaics AB is inspired in its mission -- and derives its name in part -- in memory of fellow European, physicist Alessandro Volta of Italy (1745 – 1827), the inventor of the first practical method of generating “continuous” (or “dynamic”) electricity via his Voltaic Pile.  The Voltaic Pile was constructed of alternating discs of zinc and copper, with pieces of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine between the metals, and produced electrical current. A metallic conducting arc was used to carry the electricity over a greater distance.

Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was the first device that produced a reliable, steady current of electricity and has been lauded as perhaps the most important invention of all time since virtually all later advancements in electricity can be traced to Volta. The term “volt,” defined to represent the unit of electromotive force, or difference of potential, which will cause a current of one ampere to flow through a resistance of one ohm, was named in honor of Volta by the forerunner of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1881.

A Voltaic Pile Next to a 40 nm Heterostructured Nanowire The Voltaic Pile, in its vertical orientation with layered construction is surprisingly visually reminiscent of Sol Voltaic’s heterostructured nanowires.  We are honored – now more than 200 years later – to be pursuing Voltas’ goals of continuous, reliable and low-cost electricity generation in a new era, today however not with an electrochemical reaction but rather via spectral harvesting of the sun’s photons at the atomic scale.