| Power History: DISCOVER How Solar Power Came | | | | and refining food petroleum had been perfected by |
| to Be in This Article | | | | colonel Edwin Drake in Pennsylvania who had been |
| Solar power is a story that stretches back over | | | | able to produce a range of derivatives including |
| centuries. This is often surprising to people who think | | | | kerosene and basic petroleum by feeding the crude |
| this is purely a phenomenon that has arisen over the | | | | oil into a fractional column. The U.S. started to import |
| last 50 years or so. In fact generating power from | | | | crude oil from the Arab world where it seemed at |
| the sun’s rays had come to the attention of | | | | the time that there was no limit to the amount of oil |
| scientists many years before. | | | | in these lands. However amongst Arabs sheikhs, wars |
| Mouchout in France created a solar engine in 1860. It | | | | and also internal feuding threatened the stability of |
| was a modest start and worked with solar energy | | | | supply of crude oil and encouraged efforts to be |
| being reflected on to an iron vessel containing water. | | | | stepped up on the search for alternative power |
| The effect was multiplied by having a number of | | | | sources. Public opinion started to move in the |
| reflectors around the vessel. When the water heated | | | | direction of pushing for alternative power sources |
| it produced steam and the steam pressure then | | | | and their introduction in the market. |
| operated a rudimentary steam turbine. This invention | | | | The first silicon solar cell that was able to produce a |
| was simply the culmination of the realization by many | | | | real electric current simply by sitting in the sun, was |
| people that the sun could be a source of energy to | | | | developed by Gerald Pearson, Daryl Chapin and Calvin |
| illuminate their homes and that this energy could also | | | | Fuller. Their work as scientists at the Bell Laboratories |
| be put to other uses as well. | | | | in 1953 constituted the first major advance in solar |
| Mouchout’s solar engine was then notably | | | | energy cell generation. Their inventions however |
| enhanced by inventors such Charles Tellier, John | | | | needed to face and resolve a number of technical |
| Ericsson, Henry E. Willsie Eneas and Shuman. William | | | | and business challenges. |
| Adams one of the inventors who succeeded | | | | For one thing, the solar PV (photovoltaic) cells were |
| Mouchout made a version of the solar engine with 72 | | | | in the initial stages much too expensive to produce. |
| mirrors or reflectors. This enhancement alone | | | | They did not give the required output either. This |
| boosted the power output by a factor of three. Yet | | | | however changed as the invention became |
| the problem remained that the coal-fired engines that | | | | mass-produced thanks to initiatives taken mainly by |
| were available at the time were more convenient and | | | | the German and Japanese governments. The growth |
| less expensive to use. | | | | in the production of photovoltaic cells has since then |
| The Tennessee Valley Authority started to set the | | | | achieved an astounding rate of growth. The market |
| direction however in the first half of the twentieth | | | | for photovoltaic energy cells using solar power is |
| century by encouraging the use of hydroelectric | | | | currently increasing at a staggering 30 percent per |
| power plants. In the Netherlands windmills began to | | | | annum. Japan has already begun to make hybrid cars |
| be used more and more for pumping water. At the | | | | that use both classical fuel as well as solar power, |
| same time many people came to understand that | | | | and in the U.S. solar panels operate for many homes |
| fossil fuel was not a renewable source of energy and | | | | and workplaces to provide heating. |
| that alternative sources would need to be explored. | | | | Solar power should therefore increase in use |
| Alternative energy sources were still being | | | | throughout the world . We can also expect it to |
| researched when the mass market for motorcars | | | | become less and less expensive. This is a natural |
| exploded. The intensive use of motorcars exhausted | | | | consequence of leveraging a renewable source of |
| it even the local crude oil supplies in the United | | | | energy provided by nature and also has the benefit |
| States. This was a problem of crude oil being a victim | | | | of reducing pollution. |
| of its own success. The initial process for extracting | | | | |