Solar energy history is a very short history, right? After all, we are only now trying to find renewable resources, right? It was in the 1970s that we had the energy crisis, is that not when we started looking for an alternative form of energy? In truth, solar energy history extends much further back than you might think! Way back in the late 1830s, Edmund Becquerel published his findings on how light can be turned into energy. Of course, his findings were not really ever applied. One might say that the true solar energy history because in the 1860s when Augusted Mouchout received funds from the French monarch to work on a new energy source. Mouchout created a motor that ran on solar energy and even a steam engine that worked off of solar energy. He even used energy from the sun to make ice! He did this by connecting his steam engine to a refrigeration device. William Adams used mirrors and the sun to power a steam engine during the 1870s. His design is still in used today. It is called the Power Tower Concept. In 1883, Charles Fritz turned the rays of the sun into electricity. In the later 1880s, Charles Tellier installed a solar energy system to heat the water in his house! Even in the 1800s, there were people who were aware of the possibility of depleting our nonrenewable resources! And yet, strangely, people continued to take the easier route, using designs that used coal and other nonrenewable resources instead of the sun. It was not until the 1950s that Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chaplin (of Bell Laboratories) discovered how well silicon worked as a semi-conductor. Silicon is what solar cells and solar panels are generally made of today. These are only a few of the stepping stones that make up the rich history of solar energy. There have been many other steps taken in the past that have led us to this point in solar energy history, where solar energy is no longer just a part of our history. Rather, solar energy is a major influence at present, and will only continue to be more so in the future. It is time to stop looking at solar energy history, and start looking at solar energy future! |
