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A Brief History of Solar Power

Author: AdrianFletcher
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The start of modern solar power history can be traced to the middle of the 19th century. During this time the industrial age was beginning to influence much of western Europe. The need for a combustible resources in massive quantities being one of them. This resource was coal and forward thinkers, inventors and scientists began to ponder what might happen to society should this resource run out. The results of this thinking is the modern solar power industry. This article will plot the history of solar power from this time to modernity.

From 1860 to 1880, the French inventor Auguste Mouchout constructed a solar powered engine. The idea behind the engine was to use the sun's heat to create steam. This steam could power other machinery used in many of the new factories that were being built.

The authorities in France were extremely interested in the project and began to finance his efforts. This included further research. However as more mines were opened, coal, the primary energy source of the day became cheaper. This caused the French government to lose interest in the project and the financing was stopped.

At this time, a similar developing was taking place in India. William Adams created a rack that comprised many small mirrors around a boiler. This produced an engine with around 2.5 horsepower.

Charles Tellier started working on a solar powered system in 1885. By 1889 he had created one of the first solar collectors that are used today. He installed the collector on the rooftop. The energy generated was used to cool refrigeration units.

In 1903, Aubrey Eneas began investigating solar power. He drew his inspiration from the ideas of Mouchout but increased the scale of Mouchout's work. He created a solar power engine that could be sold to the public. In fact he made a sale of one engine to a doctor in Arizona. For around $2000 it was dispatched to Arizona but became damaged soon after and was never operational. Eneas went on to sell one more engine for around the same sum but this was also never operated because it was damaged soon after set up by a hailstorm.

At this time, Henry E. Willsie made two solar plants that collected and stored energy during the day to be used during the night. His innovation was to use flat plate collectors that gave a power rating of approximately 15 horsepower.

In 1906, Frank Shuman made improvements of the original Willsie design. This increased the engine output to 33 horsepower. He continued to tweak his designs to the extent that he managed to get the engine up to 55 horsepower.

There were no note worthy developments until around 1954. Bell Laboratories researchers discovered the reaction of sunlight and silicon. This was investigated and lead to the creation of the photo voltaic (PV) cell.

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are the underlying principle behind the solar panels that you see on many a rooftop today. It creates direct current from sun light.

With the crises with oil shortages and massive increases in the cost of gasoline, research into alternative energy sources was renewed. In terms of solar power, much research went into making PV cells more efficient and cheaper.

PV cells have come a long way in terms of cost and efficiency. This will only increase, as will new methods of creating solar power, in the future. Many governments and individuals are looking to embrace the technology and provide grants and subsidies for research and use of solar energy.

About the Author

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