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

Return to the top of the page

Next Section: What Students Should Know