A Brief History of Solar Power

Although the use of solar power is considered to be a relatively new concept in the commercial market and has reached a more mainstream status in recent decades, the practice of using the energy that is generated by the sun is actually a much older practice than most people realize.

When solar power first seemed to explode on the scene, it was during the 1970s when people were starting to search for renewable energy sources as an alternative to the use of fossil fuels after the gas shortage of that decade. However, even though the embargo crisis of the 1970s forced people to start looking at alternative energy, modern devices that were designed to capture the sun's power had begun to take shape at least one hundred years earlier when an energy crisis was not even a consideration. This period of invention took place during the boom of the Industrial Revolution.

It was during this time that a handful of forward-thinking scientists began to take a closer look at electric currents generated from shining sunlight onto elements that were designed to absorb its energy. However, well before this era, solar power was used for many purposes, some of them not-so-scientific.

In the ancient religious practices of the Chinese, sacred flames that had been extinguished could only be re-lit by pure rays from the sun. The methods the Chinese used were based on reflective surfaces that manipulated the sun's rays to burn flammable elements.

Solar power was also used by artists who would generate enough heat from the sun to melt metals, powders and dyes for use in their artworks. Sometimes, the methods were as simple as placing a giant mirror or other reflective surface atop a building to power a machine or similar factory equipment. At one time, solar power was even used to produce heat in ovens in professional bakeries and even some private kitchens, for the very wealthy.

Perhaps one of the biggest misuses of solar powered energy was with the invention of weaponry that worked based solely on energy taken from the sun. There was a very brief resurgence of the idea in the latter half of the 20^th century, but the idea was never approved. Although it may have seemed like a good idea to some at first glance, the weapons that were designed to rely so heavily on the power of the sun were soon rendered useless under the dark of night and even heavy cloud cover during the day. Understandably, the idea never really blossomed among military personnel.

The first real boom in solar powered energy came in the days of the Wild West, around the middle and end of the 19^th century, when farmers and ranchers used solar power to run farm equipment, irrigation systems and other machinery. However, oil and gas quickly squelched the idea of solar powered equipment, as oil and gas provided a much more accessible and easier way to get necessary energy quickly. Also, part of the problem was the lack of the ability to capture the full power of the sun. Primitive solar energy capturing devices were not as efficient as they have come to be today, and so the solar energy boom faded away until the energy crisis and major environmental concerns of the next century came once again into the public consciousness.

Sources:

http://www.solartechnology.com/

http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar/