Solar Energy History & Fun Facts

Original post content from FGCU

Solar Energy Through History

• In 1515, Leonardo da Vinci began building a parabolic mirror four miles long that could “supply heat for any boiler in a dyeing factory, and with this a pool will be warmed, because there will always be boiling water.”

• In the early 1800’s, the Frenchman Mouchot, a professor of mathematics, cautioned others that with the expansion of industry, France was going to run short on coal very quickly because of it’s aggressive mining operations. Before coal is foolishly used up, he exclaimed, “We should reap the rays of the sun!” and then embarked upon two decades of pioneering solar energy research.

• In 1868, an American engineer named John Ericsson prophesized that with commercially viable solar engines the sunnier parts of the world could become the source of virtually limitless power. “A great proportion of our planet enjoys perpetual sunshine. The field therefore awaiting the application of the solar engine is almost beyond computation while the source of the power is boundless.” Thus he declared that he would dedicate the balance of his life to making solar engines an economical alternative.

• In 1931, Thomas A. Edison said, “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Fun Facts on Solar Power

• Sunlight travels to the earth in approximately 8 minutes from 93 million miles away, at 186,282 miles per second.

• In a single hour, enough sunlight reaches the earth’s surface to meet the entire world’s energy needs for a full year.

• As early as 1921, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for experiments with solar power and photovoltaics. It was awarded to Albert Einstein.

• When silicon is taken from just one ton of sand, and used in photovoltaic solar power panels, that silicon can produce as much electricity as 500,000 tons of burning coal.

• The price of photovoltaic (PV) solar power panels has dropped 200 percent over the last 30 years, according to the Department of Energy. Owners now pay between 10 and 40 cents per kilowatt-hour.

• In 2009,  the largest solar electric system in the world (25 MW) will be built in DeSoto County, Florida. If will provide electricity to 3,000 homes and will cover 180 acres.
• 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! The average size house system is 5 kilowatts.
• Da Vinci predicted a solar industrialization as far back as 1447.

• Accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world’s energy.

• Worldwide photovoltaic installations increased by 2,826 MW in 2007, up from 1,744 MW installed during the previous year. In 1985, annual solar installation demand was only 21 Megawatts.

• Cumulative solar energy production accounts for less than 0.01% of total Global Primary Energy demand.

• The sun is the most inexhaustible, renewable source of energy known to our civilization.
• FGCU’s 2 MW solar system will be the second largest system located on a University campus in the US.  Arizona State also has a 2 MW solar system.