Solar power history is not the recent history that most people think it is. Use of collection panels and battery charging systems may be recent, but use of the sun’s power goes back to ancient civilization.
Greeks, Romans, and Native Americans all used the sun for their heating and even for the growing of plants. Glass windows were used by Romans because they understood the benefits of catching sun through glass and that the heat did not escape easily.
The glass collection of heat was used not only to heat their homes naturally, but they discovered that if they gathered windows and planted seeds inside they could grow plants and vegetables more efficiently and their growing season was longer.
The pueblos and other hillside dwellings were often built by Native American and Greeks facing the sun so they could collect the warmth to heat their houses, then at night the air would cool and they had fresh heat that would enter in the morning.
Greeks used the sun in much the same way, although they did not get the idea from each other. Societies independently figured out that the sun was a useful resource that should not be wasted.
The sun’s power was not harnessed or utilized in any other way known for several centuries more. It wasn’t until Horace de Saussare created a cone shaped collector for the sun, which he used to boil ammonia to create locomotion and refrigerant effect. Since this new idea, the scientists of the world were enthusiastically trying to find other uses for the sun.
Solar power history also includes the use of the steam engine. The first ones used solar power, but were very expensive to operate. They had a difficult time in keeping the engine running. The scientific community saw the value and potential of solar energy, so they continued looking for an answer that worked. In the late 1800′s a cell was successfully built and the rest is history.
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