Solar Energy History

The history of the modern solar energy development started in the 18th century when,

Horace de Saussare, a Swiss physicist, have devised a unique way to use the power of the sun. He thought of a way to magnify the heat coming from the sun using thick glass. He even wondered why no one have ever thought of such a simple concept. The first product to have come up from his research was the greenhouse, and later on the solar oven.

In the 19th century, there came another guy named Auguste Mouchot. He carried on the work of Horace. Mouchot was into finding about renewable sources of energy, ‘cause he knew that non-renewable energy reserves will deplete someday. He invented the first solar collector that he used to make the first solar powered motor. The motor then, was used to power up several devices like the refrigeration machine. Imagine harnessing solar energy to make ice! 

The invention of the solar powered motor made a big impact in the solar industry, but the high costs for financing such researches halted further developments. The need for renewable energy sources wasn’t able to compete with the cheap costs of coal at that time.

During the 1880’s, Charles Fritz made the first photovoltaic cells (PV). These cells were made of “selenium” which only had a 1-2% efficiency in converting sunlight to power. Not long after, in 1891, Clarence Kemp invented the first solar water heater that soon became commercially available.

In the 1950s,  Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller, and Daryl Chaplin, from Bell Laboratories, discovered “silicon” as a material for PVs, converting 8-11% of the sun’s light to electricity. Silicon is what’s used for solar cells and solar panels to date.

1960s – Oil became so cheap that developments for renewable energy sources almost came to a stop.

1970s – Solar power had a huge rebirth because oil prices went way up. Oil production already reached its peak, making US realize just how fragile our non-renewable reserves are.

Today, solar energy is still underdeveloped. There are still a lot of innovations and researches being made, hoping to make solar energy the solution to the world’s energy problems.