The Atlantic recently featured an article, titled "Why the Age of American Progress Ended" 12/12/2022. The article makes the claim that the first commercially available solar cells were invented in 1954 at Bell Labs. But on further research, it's been shown by Philip Pesavento (ORNL) and Kris de Decker at Lowtechmagazine that commercialization of solar cells using Schottky junctions in the early 1900s was potentially blocked by competing electric plants.
Definitely. Spearheading EV's and solar energy. Medicines that rewrite a patient's DNA to save their life. Concrete plans for a moon base in a decade (is it?). Micro chips with dimensions in the single digit nanometres. The US is definitely in decline.<p>NB the US may not have been soley responsible for all this tech but definitely had at least a large hand in them.
If you could buy solar panels produced by Bell Labs but not those produced by George Cove, then Bell Labs did indeed invent the first commercially available solar cells.