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The History Of Electricity Production From The Sun

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

By Arlene Case

When politicians start talking about renewable energy, you know we have problems. Solar energy has great potential for becoming a source of renewable energy, and it is very interesting how this technology has developed over time.

In simple words, solar electricity is nothing more than harnessed sun energy. It can be used for electricity production through panels, home heating, and also to power laptops and other electronic devices.

Historically, sunlight has been used by mankind to produce heat ever since we first built structures. Over time, we have learned how to orient certain structures to absorb the heat of the sun and store it for use. Certain structures built by the early Greeks and Egyptians made use of these techniques.

The production of electricity using sunlight is a much more recent phenomena. The first patent related to solar energy was issued to Nicolas Tesla in 1901, but at the time it was known as radiant energy. He obtained a patent to capture the heat of the sun, but his invention didn't go very far.

Albert Einstein - an unknown physicist at the time - published a paper about the possibility to create electricity from the power of the sun. In 1913, William Coblentz received the first patent for a solar cell, but he could never make it work. However, Robert Millikan was able to produce electricity with the cell in 1916. The next forty years were fairly void of any serious progress, and nobody was able to convert sunlight to electricity with the cells they had available.

In the 1950's, Bell Labs started working with Nasa. He was appointed with the task of creating a solar panel that could power spacecraft after they were launched in orbit. This marked the revolution of the solar industry.

Gerald L. Pearson, Daryl M. Chapin, and Calvin S. Fuller started researching different areas related to solar, but not active parts of the NASA project. They met by chance, and immediately started exchanging ideas. Even if their individual ideas never succeeded, when they finally combined their efforts they were able to produce an efficient cell that was able to convert sunlight into electricity by using crystallized silicon. The cell had an efficiency rate of 6% which was much better than any other effort from the past. In 1958, Nasa launched the Vanguard, the first spacecraft powered by solar panels.

Solar technology grew exponentially from that moment on. Solar panels today are roughly 15 percent efficient, but also much smaller than they use to be. Some companies are now even substituting panels for newer, more efficient products. Some of these new products are shingles that look exactly like the old roof shingles. Nanotechnology is also offering amazing possibilities with quantum dots, which are essentially solar panels on the quantum level. It is possible that we will be able to incorporate these dots in different things like paint, for example. If that possibility becomes reality, the paint on walls and buildings could provide heat.

Man has used the power of the sun 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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