Old School Solar: 15 Pioneers & Peculiars in Solar History

This is the age of Solar. It’s hard when you’re living in it to tell exactly how history will remember your time and place, but it seems ever more obvious that our current Digital Age will be followed by a Renewable Revolution.

But let us not think that we’re the beginning. The Sun was powering Earth long before humankind took its first step, and for five thousand years, we’ve been fascinated by that fiery orb in the sky and all the energy it delivers. So in the interest of a little humility and humor, following are 15 moments, mavericks and milestones from solar energy’s long and winding road to the historic revolution we are so lucky to be a part of…

1. Greco-Roman Daylighting – Said the great Socrates, “In houses that look toward the south, the sun penetrates the portico in winter.” Over 3,000 years ago, the Greeks and Romans utilized south-facing windows in their homes and bathhouses to provide solar warmth. The Romans actually used glazing in the form of glass or mica to trap solar heat. And even centuries before that, both cultures burned attacking ships of war by reflecting sunlight off of mirrors or bronze shields.
2. Give Me Solar or Give Me Death – It’s the 6th Century A.D. in the eastern Roman Empire, and sunrooms on houses are so prevalent that the Justinian Code (issued by emperor Justinian I) had to be amended to include “sun rights” – laws to ensure that every homeowner had reasonable access to the sun.
3. The Solar Steam Engine – Skip ahead to 1861. Auguste Mouchout designs and begins work on the world’s first active solar motor, a steam engine powered entirely by the sun. Unfortunately, and eerily reminiscent of more modern times, Mouchout’s invention fell prey to high construction costs and falling costs for English coal at the time. Thus, his landmark invention and precursor to the modern parabolic dish collector was relegated to obscurity for many years to come.
4. The Golden Solar Cell – Not long after Mouchout began work on his steam engine in France, American inventor Charles Fritts was toying with the first solar cells. They were made from a wafer of selenium coated with a thin layer of gold to create electricity.
5. Nobel Solar – In 1921, the first Nobel Prize was awarded for solar power innovation. The winner? Albert Einstein, for his 1905 theory (proven in the lab by 1921) on the photoelectric effect. It appeared in a paper published along with his theory of relativity.
6. The Sun Queen – There is arguably no greater solar pioneer than Maria Telkes, dubbed the “Sun Queen” for all her solar energy efforts. Among other things, Maria Telkes has the distinction of designing the first-ever residential solar heating system for the first home solar power system in 1948. The system was commissioned by the sculptor Amelia Peabody.
7. Powerama! The first solar-powered car was demonstrated on August 31, 1955 in Chicago at General Motors’ Powerama expo. The car was designed by William G. Cobb and was allegedly only 15 inches long with 12 selenium photoelectric cells. The first solar car large enough to carry a man was a DIY model with a solar canopy built by Englishman Alan Freeman in 1979.
8. Change Please – Also in 1955, Western Electric company began selling commercial licenses for silicon PV technologies. This occurred just a year after Bell Laboratories famously birthed photovoltaics in the United States. Among the first products to be licensed were the PV-powered dollar bill changers.
9. Vanguard 1 – The Vanguard 1 was certainly a milestone for solar power – and NASA for that matter. In 1958, The Vanguard 1 became the first spacecraft to use solar power. It was a satellite equipped with a 0.1 watt, 100 cm² solar panel… and space solar power is born.
10. Synchronar - In 1971, Roger Riehl invented a wristwatch with no moving parts. Powered by the sun, the watch sold for a measly $1,700. It was called the Synchronar and was especially unique for its lack of visible display on top. Because the top was needed to collect solar power, the time was shown in digital format on the side of the watch face. A press of a button would show hours, minutes or seconds.
11. Calculating Solar – Here’s a throwback for all those thirty-somethings out there. Odds are you had a solar-powered addition to the contents of your desk. Solar-powered calculators hit the market around 1978, complete with small solar panels that allowed the pocket-sized devices to work under both natural and electric light. These calculators are arguably the first solar device to penetrate the American mainstream.
12. California Heat Wave – California is by and large the top solar state of today. On its own, California claims one of the top five solar markets in the world. So it’s worth mentioning that in 1982, California’s first large-scale solar power plant went live. It was called Solar One. It was a 10-MW demonstration power tower plant that operated until 1988.
13. California Does it Again – It’s little wonder that California is our solar leader when you look at history. About the same time that Solar One starts collecting heat, California gets the first large-scale PV plant up and running in the city of Hesperia. It was built by ARCO Solar, produced 1 megawatt of electricity and utilized 108 separate tracking systems to follow the sun.
14. Airborne Solar – In 1981, Paul MacCready built the first solar-powered aircraft. It was the Solar Challenger and was equipped with over 16,000 solar cells producing 3 kilowatts of power. MacCready flew his solar plane from France to England across the English Channel.
15. Touring Australia – The first long-distance solar powered car was driven in 1982 by Australian Hans Tholstrup. He drove the car nearly 2,800 miles from Sydney to Perth in 20 days. That’s a full 10 days faster than the first gasoline-powered car to make the same trek. It should be noted that Tholstrup also founded the World Solar Challenge, now a very popular race for solar vehicle enthusiasts and researchers.

Of course, these are but highlights of solar power’s long history on this earth. We stand in the midst of solar’s great ascendance into fame and influence – the heart of the timeline. The quirky bits and maverick moments I’ve just described are but a preamble to history we are experiencing and the awesome and unimaginable history to come. In other words, this is one timeline that still has a lot of growing to do.

Sources:

U.S. Department of Energy

Wikipedia.org

Photo Credit: TravelBlog, KnowledgePublications, The Naked Scientist, Unique Watch Guide, Ebay, & Happy Hotelier

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Posted on September 30th in Solar Products by Dan.