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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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