I have no idea whether this is Portugal’s first solar photovoltaic farm, but on a recent trip to see the LNEG Laboratory in Lisbon (see my blog post on solar heat innovation in Portugal), I came across this magnificent example of early solar photovoltaic innovation:

The ground mounted array consists of 17 Siemens-Interatom SM 144 modules, which as far as I can tell, were made in around 1984.

One of the old beauties in the Sunset Solar “museum”: a SM 144 “Siemens-Interatom” module of around 1984 with 144 (9×16) perfect round, apparently monocrystalline (non-edged) cells with intricate and probably expensive front contact pattern.

http://www.polderpv.nl/Intersolar2008.htm

Is it just me, or is there sense of beauty in a module with perfectly round cells and an intricate contact pattern?