Solar Energy History – A Brief Overview

Solar energy history is immense. Contrary to popular belief, the uses of solar energy have been used from a very long time in the past and not just in the 21^st century. Although the useful properties of the sun were studied by ancient astronomers from almost 2000 years back by ancient Indian astronomers, actual serious developments that could be used for useful purposes happened only in the 19^th century around the time when the Industrial Revolution started to take shape. Once people in the 19^th century realized that coal and petroleum resources would not last for a very long time, various efforts were made to try and produce energy from other sources which led to the development of solar energy as a source of energy which could be used for producing useful energy that could be used for day-to-day purposes.

Various efforts were made by scientists back in the 19^th century to try and make use of the energy from the sun and use its heat for useful purposes. Perhaps one of the earliest of such efforts was made by Auguste Mouchout, a French scientist who built a device that use the sun's heat to power a steam engine which helped to make ice. This was considered to be a breakthrough in the solar energy field by many people at that time. This was probably one of the first dates in solar energy history that can be considered pretty significant.

Now we have all seen what an important role electricity plays in our lives. Recently, there has been significant development in this field and there has been plenty of research done in this area. Perhaps one of the earliest attempts to convert this solar energy into electricity was made by Charles Fritz. In 1883, he built a solar cell that had a really good conversion rate of about 1%. Considering the fact that even the most modern photovoltaic cells cannot achieve effeciencies of more than 50%, 1% at such a long time back in solar energy history is indeed significant.

Mean while throughout the 1880's, there was constant research being conducted in the field of solar energy with more solar steam engines that were similar to the original model developed by Auguste Mouchout being developed by different scientists with constant improvements in the effeiceincies being made. There were various efforts made by people like Aubrey Eneas and Henry Willsie to try and develop solar energy companies that however did not become very successful due to various reasons.

Frank Shuman, another enterpreuner who saw the enormous potential in the solar energy field formed a company named Sun Power Co. Which was built over an area of more than 10,000 square feet to try and produce enough power to generate useful electricity. This proved to be only partly successful but had to be shut down because of the large costs involved. This was, however, in the early part of the 20^th century when the major part of the solar energy history was being developed.

It was in 1954 that the first major breakthrough was made in this field. Thanks to the development of silicon and other semi-conductors, Bell Laboratories became the first company to construct solar panels which had efficiency rates of as much as 6%. This subsequently led to the development of commercial solar cells which were pretty expensive and used in smaller devices such as calculators and watches. In the 1950's and the 1960's, these solar cells were developed on a bigger scale and were used in satellites to generate electricity for use inside the satellites. After that the solar energy history has literally snowballed into becoming one of the largest and most widely used industries in the world.

Recently, there has been the development and research involved in the solar energy field thereby encouraging many scientists to pursue this actively. More and more efficiency is being achieved in the photovoltaic cells these days making it possible for people to set up solar panels in their houses. Many countries and governments have also begun to use solar powered devices to generate electricity and provide tax incentives for those that do use solar energy to satisfy their energy needs.

This was a brief summary on solar energy history
and how solar energy has evolved into the energy source that it is today.

Cheers,

Andy.