The history of solar energy is very interesting. I have collated some very notable points that outline the history of solar technology, taken directly from a document created by the US Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
7th Century B.C. Magnifying glass used to concentrate sun’s rays to make fire and to burn ants.
1767 Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure was credited with building the world’s first solar collector, later used by Sir John Herschel to cook food during his South Africa expedition in the 1830s. See the Solar Cooking Archive for more information on http://solarcooking.org/saussure.htm Sassure and His Hot Boxes of the 1700s.
1839 French scientist Edmond Becquerel discovers the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes placed in an electricity-conducting solution—electricity-generation increased when exposed to light.
1873 Willoughby Smith discovered the photoconductivity of selenium. 1876 1876 William Grylls Adams and Richard Evans Day discover that selenium produces electricity when exposed to light. Although selenium solar cells failed to convert enough sunlight to power electrical equipment, they proved that a solid material could change light into electricity without heat or moving parts.
1860s French mathematician August Mouchet proposed an idea for solar-powered steam engines. In the following two decades, he and his assistant, Abel Pifre, constructed the first solar powered engines and used them for a variety of applications. These engines became the predecessors of modern parabolic dish collectors.
1891 Baltimore inventor Clarence Kemp patented the first commercial solar water heater. For more information on the water heater, see the http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_solarthermal.html California Solar Centre.
1908 William J. Bailley of the Carnegie Steel Company invents a solar collector with copper coils and an insulated box.
1916 Robert Millikan provided experimental proof of the photoelectric effect.
1921 Albert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize for his theories (1904 research and technical paper) explaining the photoelectric effect.
1954 Photovoltaic technology is born in the United States when Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson develop the silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell at Bell Labs—the first solar cell capable of converting enough of the sun’s energy into power to run every-day electrical equipment. Bell Telephone Laboratories produced a silicon solar cell with 4% efficiency and later achieved 11% efficiency. See the http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_pv.html for more information.
1959 Hoffman Electronics achieves 10% efficient, commercially available photovoltaic cells. Hoffman also learns to use a grid contact, reducing the series resistance significantly.
1970s Dr. Elliot Berman, with help from Exxon Corporation, designs a significantly less costly solar cell, bringing price down from $100 a watt to $20 a watt. Solar cells begin to power navigation warning lights and horns on many offshore gas and oil rigs, lighthouses, railroad crossings and domestic solar applications began to be viewed as sensible applications in remote locations where grid connected utilities could not exist affordably.
1972 The Institute of Energy Conversion is established at the University of Delaware to perform research and development on thin-film photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal systems, becoming the world’s first laboratory dedicated to PV research and development.
1982 Worldwide photovoltaic production exceeds 9.3 megawatts.
1993 Pacific Gas & Electric completes installation of the first grid-supported photovoltaic system in Kerman, California. The 500-kilowatt system was the first “distributed power” effort.
2001 NASA’s solar-powered aircraft—Helios sets a new world record for non-rocket powered aircraft: 96,863 feet, more than 18 miles high.