Solar Energy Articles

The History of Solar Panel Technology

With the massive improvements in the technology behind the solar panels, it is quite obvious for the people to make an assumption that the solar panels are relatively much known to the research and development areas. The sun has been a source of energy since the ancient times. It is dated back by history that the use of solar power was first made by the Greek as well as the Native Americans in the times as early as 400 BC. They mainly used the heat that is radiated from the sun, by building their houses in the sun-exposed areas so that the heat can be retained to store it in the night and provide warmth. In this article, we are going to explore about this history of solar panels.

The Romans are the first persons in the history of the dated civilization of the mankind in order to make use of the power of the sun. Although they did not invent the technique of the solar panels, they took the knowledge of the sun. They made the windows of the glass materials so that they could be transparent to the sunlight as well as regulate the flow of heat into their homes.

There were many people benefitting with the various facets of implementation of solar power materials. This continued till the period of 1776. In this year, there was an invention and the first of a kind solar panel was built. It was built by a gentleman named Horace de Saussure. The collector that harnessed the heat energy from the sun was built in to the shape of the cone. It was used to boil ammonia which was used for the refrigeration purposes and also for locomotion. This was the case, however, the fossil fuels continued to be used, due to its then abundance. There was a deep interest developed from the research community however in the later years of the 19th century owing to seeking of the alternative sources of energy in order to reduce the burden posed by the ever-growing population of the world on the rare, delicate and non-renewable fossil fuels.

There are other examples of solar power being used in the machines as well. In the year 1861, there was an attempt by August Mouchout to power a steam engine by the solar energy. But the invention proved to be very much cost consuming and the implementation of the same did not take place ever in history. But this did not stop the attempts of the other people who were of the opinion that there is a lot of scope and potential in order to harness the power of the sun. The history of the first ever light converting photovoltaic cells built was in the year 1888. These cells were built up from selenium. They had a very poor efficiency of about just one or to a maximum extent two percent. It was not very long time for the technology of the solar panels to be there without rendering any applications. Three years later, the first ever solar water heater was patented by American by the name of Clarence Kemp.

For the next 50 to 60 years in the history of science, the solar panel did not gain much momentum and was at a standstill. The turnaround was witnessed in the year 1921 when Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in physics in the year 1921. This was due to the detailed explanation and the demonstration of the photoelectric effect. The latter half of the 1950s is the time when solar power became a matter of dominance from the technology and research that extensively followed it.

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