Over the next decade, the photovoltaic industry experienced steady growth rates of between 15% and 20%, largely promoted by the remote power supply market. In 1985 silicon solar cells achieved the milestone of 20% efficiency. In the 1980s research into silicon solar cells paid off and solar cells began to increase their efficiency. Small scale transportable applications (such as calculators and watches) were utilised and remote power applications began to benefit from photovoltaics. Their application and advantage to the 'remote' power supply area was quickly recognized and prompted the development of terrestrial photovoltaics industry. Although the oil crisis proved short-lived and the financial incentive to develop solar cells abated, solar cells had entered the arena as a power generating technology. It took the oil crisis in the 1970s to focus world attention on the desirability of alternate energy sources for terrestrial use, which in turn promoted the investigation of photovoltaics as a means of generating terrestrial power. These space solar cells were several thousand times more expensive than they are today and the perceived need for an electricity generation method apart from grid power was still a decade away, but solar cells became an interesting scientific variation to the rapidly expanding silicon transistor development with several potentially specialized niche markets.

Research and development of photovoltaics received its first major boost from the space industry in the 1960s which required a power supply separate from 'grid' power for satellite applications. Today it is a rapidly growing and increasingly important renewable alternative to conventional fossil fuel electricity generation, but compared to other electricity generating technologies, it is a relative newcomer, with the first practical photovoltaic devices demonstrated in the 1950s. Photovoltaics is the process of converting sunlight directly into electricity using solar cells.

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