A Brief History of Solar Energy
Posted: Monday, March 06, 2006
by dorota wysocki
History of Solar is as old as humanity. We always saw a great potential in using sun’s capacity to warm our houses. Ancient Greeks and Romans saw the great benefit in sun’s energy. They used architecture to use sun’s rays to light and heat indoors. The first inventor of solar motor was Auguste Mouchout. In 1861 he developed a steam engine powered by the sun. During 19 th century solar energy intrigued and attracted European scientists. France and England hoped that the solar could power them in the sunny clonies of Africa and East Asia . In USA John Ericsson designed the “parabolic trough collector", this technology was functioning more then a hundred years. In 20 the century Albert Einstein was the one who research the generation of electricity through solar cells. In 1953 Bell laboratories scientists Gerald Pearson, Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller developed the first silicon solar cell capable of generating a measurable electric current. In 1956, solar photovoltaic (PV) cells were far from economically practical. It was not until October 1973 that the solar leapt to prominence in energy research. The Arab Oil Embargo demonstrated the degree to which the Western economy depended upon a cheap and reliable flow of oil. The US government invested in the solar electric cell that Bell had produced. By the 1990s, the reality was that costs of solar energy had dropped and huge PV market grown in Japan and German. The PV market is currently growing 30% per year.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)this was helpful :p :D
jake was here i like .................. kelse
helpfull, but not enough
This was a GREAT brief history! Also, Kajal from Kolkata, the word is BREIF. If you wanted more than brief, don't comment on BRIEF ARTICLES.
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