The History of Solar Power - A Timeline

THE EVOLUTION OF SOLAR ENERGY genius energy Love Planet Earth 2ND CENTURY BC 1) Greek scientist Archimedes used bronze, reflective shields to focus the 6TH CENTURY AD intensity of the sun's rays to set fire to wooden ships from the Roman Empire. Sun-rooms on public buildings & houses became popular & common, utilising large, south- facing windows for optimum warmth www.ablogabouthistory.com 1767 3 energyfuture.wikidot.com The Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure was credited 1839 with building the world's first solar collector. This is later Edmond Becquerel - a French scientist - discovers what we used by South African Sir John Herschel to cook food using solar energy on his South African expedition. now know as the 'Photovoltaic Effect' while experimenting with an electrolytic cell suspended in fluid. When this cell was exposed to sunlight, it was found to generate an increased amount of electricity. * Artist's impression of de Saussure's improved Hotbox solarcooking.org pvcdrom.pveducation.org Albert Einstein 1904 published his well- known paper on the photoelectric effect and the technicalities 1947 of this, which proved significant enough to later acquire a Nobel prize in 1921. jackikellum.wordpress.com Solar buildings in the US were in huge demand. So much so, that Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass company publishes a book, named "Your Solar House' outlining 49 of the greatest US solar architects. YOUR SOLAR HOUSE agincourtiowa.com 1958 7 First instance of solar energy in Space. The Vanguard, Explorer and Sputnik craft are all launched with solar 1982 First solar powered car achieved near 2800 miles pv on board. To this day, solar remains the preferred energy source for space applications. between Sydney & Perth in just 20 days - 10 days faster than the first petrol- powered car to embark on the same journey. www.smh.com.au wikipedia.org The evolution of large scale solar energy plants 1986 9 10 occurs around this time. In fact, by 1999, the world's largest plant was generating more than 20 kilowatts. 1999 Spectrolab Inc. & National Renewable Energy Lab develop a PV solar cell that converts wikipedia.org 32.3 % of sunlight into usable electricity. A huge exponential rise in domestic solar PV systems 2012 11) phys.org was witnessed over the said decade - especially in China, Japan, Germany, 12 2014 United States and the United * The world's largest solar-thermal plant officially starts generating in the United States. The Ivanpah project is powered by an astonishing 350,000 solar mirrors, sprawling across approximately 5 square miles of the Mojave desert. Kingdom. ozarker.org ivanpahsolar.com