Solar Energy History

When politicians start talking about renewable energy, you know we have problems. Solar energy is a significant renewable energy. Here is an overview of solar energy history.

Solar Energy History

Solar energy is simply energy produced by harnessing the sun. It comes in many forms including electricity production through solar panels, home heating through passive solar systems and solar energy packets for powering devices like laptops and RVs to mention only a few platforms. 

Historically, solar energy has been used by mankind to produce heat since we first built structures. Without electricity, mankind soon learned to orient structures to capture the heat of the sun during the day and store it in ceramic or mud materials much like a blacktop parking lot will radiate heat after the sun has gone down. Early Greek structures show a particular use of passive solar heating as do Egyptian structures. 

The production of electricity using sunlight is a much more recent phenomena. In 1901, Nicolas Tesla was the first person to receive a patent related to solar energy, but he called it radiant heating. He sought a patent for a machine to capture the radiant heat, but nothing much came of the invention.

In 1904, some unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published a paper on the potential electricity production from sunlight. In 1913, William Coblentz received the first patent for a solar cell, but he could never make it work. In 1916, Robert Millikan was the first to produce electricity with the solar cell. For the next forty years or so, nobody made much progress because the cells were highly inefficient at converting sunlight to energy.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs got involved with NASA. Bell was charged with coming up with a solar energy platform to power spacecraft once they were in orbit. The solar energy field would never be the same.

 Gerald L. Pearson, Daryl M. Chapin, and Calvin S. Fuller start researching different areas related to solar, but not active parts of the NASA project. By luck, they meet and exchange idea. While their individual projects were failures, their combined efforts produce a much more efficient solar cell using crystallized silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. The efficiency rate of the cells is roughly 6 percent, a marked improvement over previous technology.  In 1958, NASA launches the Vanguard Spacecraft, which is powered by solar panels.

In the following years, solar energy technology grows in leaps and bounds. Solar panels today are roughly 15 percent efficient, but also much smaller than they use to be. More importantly, companies are abandoning the solar panel platform and coming out with amazing new products. The first are solar shingles that look exactly like regular roof shingles and perform as such. Nanotechnology is also offering amazing possibilities with quantum dots, which are essentially solar panels on the quantum level. Eventually, these dots will be incorporated in things such as paint. Yes, the paint on the walls of buildings and homes will eventually also produce all the electricity needed for the structures.

As this solar energy history demonstrates, man has used solar power for heat for a very long time. Only now, however, are we starting to master the technology to turn it into large amounts of free electricity.

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The Solar Energy Facts

Okay, we all know it’s a good choice, but why?

Here we discuss Facts about solar energy usage, systems, plus sun related and other Interesting Facts about Solar Energy.

All of which will help you with your decision whether or not to install a solar energy system at your home.

Perhaps you’d even like to save yourself a lot of money and Build your very own solar energy system.

General facts

• Solar Energy is better for the environment than traditional forms of energy.
• Solar energy has many uses such as electricity production and heating of water through photovoltaic cells and directly for drying clothes.
• Solar energy can also be used to heat swimming pools, power cars, for attic fans, calculators and other small appliances. It produces lighting for indoors or outdoors.
• You can even cook food with solar energy.
• Solar Energy is becoming more and more popular. The worldwide demand for Solar Energy is currently greater than supply.

Facts about Solar Energy usage:

• Solar Energy is measured in kilowatt-hour. 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts.
• 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
• According to the US Department of Energy, an average American household used approximately 866-kilowatt hours per month in 1999 costing them $70.68.
• About 30% of our total energy consumption is used to heat water.

Facts about Solar Energy systems:

• A home solar system is typically made up of solar panels, an inverter, a solar battery, a Solar charger controller, wiring and support structure.
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system takes about 1-2 days to install and costs around US$10,000, but can vary greatly and does not take into account any incentives offered by the government.
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system consists of about 10-12 solar panels and requires about 100 square feet of installation area.
• A 1 kilowatt home solar system will generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate (receiving 5.5 hours of sunshine per day) and approximately 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate (receiving 2.5 hours of sunshine per day).
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system will prevent approximately 170 lbs. of coal from being burned, 300 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and 105 gallons of water from being consumed each month!

   

• About 40 solar cells are usually combined into a solar panel and around 10-12 panels mounted in an array facing due North to receive maximum sunlight.
• The system usually comes with a 5-year warranty, although the solar panels are warranted for 20.
• Relying on the battery back up, a solar energy system can provide electricity 24×7, even on cloudy days and at night.
• Solar panels come in various colours.
• Solar energy can be collected and stored in batteries, reflected, insulated, absorbed and transmitted.

Sun related Facts about Solar Energy:

• Sunlight travels to the earth in approximately 8 minutes from 93,000,000 miles away, at 186,282 miles per second.
• The sun is also the main source of non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum), which began life as plants or animals whose energy came from the sun millions of year ago.
• Solar energy is responsible for weather patterns and ocean currents.
• Clouds, pollution and wind can prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth.

Other Interesting Facts about Solar Energy:

• Da Vinci predicted a solar industrialization as far back as 1447.
• In one hour more sunlight falls on the earth than what is used by the entire population in one year.
• A world record was set in 1990 when a solar powered aircraft flew 4060km across the USA, using no fuel.
• Fierce weather cost the world a record $130 Billion in the first eleven months of 1998- more money than was lost from weather related disasters from 1980 to 1990 ($82 Billion).
• Researchers from the Worldwatch Institute and Munich Re blame deforestation and climate change from Earth warming for much of the loss. The previous one-year record was $90 Billion in 1996. Source - Associated Press, November 28,1998.
• About 2 billion people in the world are currently without electricity.
• Accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world’s energy.
• Electric ovens consume the most amount of electricity, followed by microwaves and central air conditioning.
• Third world countries with an abundance of sunlight and a population currently without electricity, represents the fastest growing market for solar energy, with the largest domestic market being the utilities sector.
• Shell Oil predicts that 50% of the world’s energy will come from renewable sources by 2040.

Solar Energy Phones

Solar Energy Phones

Solar energy phones are bound to become the must-have product in the future.  As the energy reduced daily, energy saving is an eternal task. The current cell phones are almost use lithium, Ni-MH are all energy consumption, environmental pollution and difficult to recover. I strongly appeal majority people who with social responsibilities pay attention to this industry’s development.

The differentiation competition urge the cell phone emerge one after another, such as business cell phone , information security cell phone, invisible cell phone. Recently, a new kind of light energy cell phone shocked this area and attractive enough eyes. Explanting solar energy technology to cell phone has enormous appliance value? What is the technology difficulty? And whether it is becomes to the new sea of cell phone industry or not?

Plenty of consumers’ cell phone always out of battery, so many people have to take along 2 or 3 batteries when goes out, even someone take along the charger daily. Solving cell phone standby problem is concerned by supplier all along, along with the come forth of cell phone multimedia function, standby problem disturb the Solar panel cell phone industry and consumers all alone. Everybody hope to explants convenient, energy saving, safe and reliable solar energy technology to cell phone, make it becomes to the long-term steady dynamic supporting of cell phone in 3G eras wireless life?

Users obviously feel that the charge frequency reduced dramatically after they use the cell phone battery which utilizes the solar energy technology. The battery working life increased obviously which convenient to people phone conversation, media and entertainment aspects. Meanwhile, new energy, new material is the inevitable trend of cell phone development. Photo-electricity converts technology full of challenges.

Current domestic chips enterprises is in weakness stage in photo-electricity convert chips and low consumption chips technology, it is difficult to achieve mass production, hence, it is difficult to realize domestic purchasing in a short period. Besides, some domestic solar energy monocrystalline silicon wafer company supplied solar energy silicon wafer with low absorptivity universally, it will affect photo-electricity effect directly. Now many laptop battery manufacturer are using the solar panel to design the new battery accessories.

How to increase the solar panel use area under the circumstance of not affecting the cell phone cosmetic, optimize the battery internal management and enhance the photovoltaic conversion will be the further focus and difficulty in technology development of solar cell phone. Now the solar panel can be used in laptop battery.

China now has more than 400 million mobile phone users with huge potential consumer market. In addition, this technology expect to realize on mobile phone, but also can be expanded to MP3, DV, DC, Bluetooth and other consumer electronics products, the application value is very wide. With gradual growth of market and increased feedback of consumer satisfaction degree, solar energy cell phone will be like a webcam as an important standard device of cell phone and become as a guideline for consumers to choose cell phone. Experts predict that solar energy cell phone battery will be a bright point next year.