Sun4Schools Curriculum
The Power of Solar Energy :: Solar Energy Timeline
(Source: Florida Solar Energy Center)
4.5 billion years ago
Solar energy reaches the earth.
7th Century B.C.E.
Magnifying glass used to concentrate sun's rays to make fire.
3rd Century B.C.E.
Greeks and Romans use "burning mirrors" to focus sunlight as weapons of war to ignite fires and burn sails of enemy war ships.
20 A.D.
Chinese document use of burning mirrors to light torches for religious purposes.
100
Italian historian Pliny the Younger builds passive solar home using glass for the first time to keep heat in and cold out.
1-500
Roman baths built with large windows facing south to let sunlight for heat.
6th Century
Justinian Code enacted to protect sunrooms on houses and public buildings so that shadows will not interfere with the sun used for heat and light.
1300s
Ancestors of Pueblo people called Anasazi, in North America live in south-facing cliff dwellings that capture the winter sun.
1600s
Educated people accept the idea that the sun and stars are the same.
1643-1715
Reign of French King Louis XIV, ("Sun King"), is an era of solar experiments.
1695
French Georges Buffon concentrates sunlight using mirrors to ignite wood and melt lead.
1700s
• European aristocracy use walls to store solar heat for ripening fruit (fruit walls)
• England and Holland lead development of greenhouses with sloping glass walls facing south;
• Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier builds solar furnace to melt platinum.
1767
Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure invents first solar collector (solar hot box)
1800s
• Wealthy Europeans build and use solar-heated greenhouses and conservatories;
• French scientist uses heat from solar collector to make steam to power a steam engine
1830s
Astronomer Sir John Herschel uses solar cooker to cook food for his expedition to South Africa.
1839
French scientist Edmund Becquerel observes photovoltaic effect.
1860s
Post Civil War U.S. development of solar energy; pioneers find that water left in black pans in the sunlight gets hot.
1861
French scientist Augustin Mouchot patents solar engine.
1870s
Augustin Mouchot uses solar cookers, solar water pumps for irrigation, and solar stills for wine and water distillation (most widespread use of solar energy).
1880s
• Engineer John Ericsson, "first American Solar Scientist," develops solar-driven engines for ships;
• Solar-powered printing press working in France.
1891
Baltimore inventor Clarence Kemp ("real father of solar energy in the U.S.") patents first commercial Climax Solar Water Heater.
1892
Inventor Aubrey Eneas founds Solar Motor Company of Boston to build solar-powered motors to replace steam engines powered by coal or wood.
1897
Kemp's water heaters used in 30% of homes in Pasadena, CA.
1908
Los Angeles: Carnegie Steel Company invents modern type of roof solar collector.
1920s
Solar Industry focus moves from California to Florida.
1936
American astrophysicist Charles Greeley Abbott invents solar boiler.
1940s
Great demand for solar homes, both active and passive, creates Your Solar House, a book of house plans by 49 great solar architects.
1941
Approximately 60,000 solar water heaters in use in Florida.
1950s
• Architect Frank Bridgers designs world's first solar-heated office building;
• Low-cost natural gas becomes primary heating fuel.
1954
Birth of solar cells (photovoltaics).
Late 1950s
Extensive use of solar cells in space industry for satellites.
1960s
• Some U.S. solar companies manufacturing solar cells or solar hot water heaters;
• U.S. oil imports surpass 50 percent
1970s
U.S. Department of Energy established; national solar research labs established.
1973
• Energy shortages/oil embargo;
• Indifference about solar energy begins to decline.
1974
Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), largest state solar center, is established.
1977
President Jimmy Carter installs solar panels on the White House and promotes incentives for solar energy systems.
1979
• Second U.S. oil embargo;
• Solar trade association (Solar Energy Industries Association) established in Washington, DC.
1980
• Energy Security Act virtually shuts down national solar research programs;
• States begin establishing solar research facilities.
1980s
U.S. government and private industry assist several thousand Navaho and Hopi Indians in Arizona and New Mexico supplement their passive solar homes with photovoltaic power.
1983
Wisconsin enacts solar access law to protect the "right to light" for urban gardens, soon enacted in Arizona and Michigan.
1990s
• Tokyo has approximately 1.5 million buildings with solar water heaters (more than in the entire U.S.);
• Israel uses solar water heating for approximately 30 percent of their buildings and all new homes are required to install solar water heating systems;
• Greece, Australia and several additional countries are ahead of the U.S. in solar energy usage.
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