A brief history in Solar Energy

We amongst the general community think that solar energy is new source of power this decades this could not be further from the truth ! Whilst it's true that advances in solar science are becoming more widely publicised, the origins of solar technology go back to ancient times history as exemplified by the astounding solar city of Priene, built by Greek colonists 2500 years ago on the southern slopes of Mount Mycale in Turkey.

Other civilizations, the Chinese, Egyptians, Persians, Incas and Romans developed high! sophisticated structures and building codes centered around solar energy. The Romans in particular, with the hindsight of Greek experience and the advantage of plate glass glazing took solar architecture to new limits as displayed in the ruins of their huge public baths and other civic buildings.

 At several points in history, wood, the main fuel source became extremely scarce. The Romans even commissioned a fleet of ships called the "Lignati" ( wood ships ), whose sole purpose was to sail around the Mediterranean plundering forests and woodlands.Apart from the solar orientation of buildings, the evidence of which is supported by the ruins, the full extent of the industrial implementation of solar energy by the ancients is unclear. The great central library at Alexandria which housed much of the advanced knowle­dge of past millennia, was destroyed by barbarian hordes around 300 A.D.

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We do know however that the Greeks, Chinese and Romans were well aware of the properties of parabolic concentrating mirrors and that they used them for smelting metallic ores as well as military and religious purposes. Archemides is purported to have used long range burning mirrors to destroy the Roman fleet at the battle of Syracuse in 212 B.C. There is also evidence to suggest that the Greeks had some form of solar powered steam turbine.

Solar energy in the West fell into disuse during the turmoil of the "Dark Ages" and it was not until 1515 that Leonardo de Vinci revived the concept of parabolic concentrators for the production of industrial heat and steam. Leonardos engineering drawings are the earli­est surviving records of such devices. Problems with the production of large precision mirrors prevented any meaningful application at the time.
 
In the 17th and 18th centuries solar heating for horticulture underwent a "renaissance" and with the French re-discovering the manufactur­ing secrets of plate glass, sophisticated greenhouses sprang up all over Europe as in Roman times, revolutionizing the production of fruit and vegetables in colder climates and epitomized by the incredible conservatories and botanic gardens of Victorian England.

In 1839 Edmund Becquerel discovered the Photo-Voltaic effect ( electricity from sunlight '. but it took another 50 years before the first solar cells were made by Charles fritts using discs of Selenium covered with a transparent gold film. Efficiency was less 1% and of little practical value. At the same time Augustin Mouchot was experimenting with thero-electric generators where plates of dissimilar metals ( copper & iron ) are sandwi­ched together and exposed to focussed solar heat, producing current.

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 Solar History page 2