Solar Energy History Goes Back To Ancient Times

The use of the sun for energy is steeped in solar power history. Although the collection and use we see today was not developed until the late 19th century, ancient societies used it for warmth and as a growing tool.

Greeks, Romans, and Native Americans all used the sun for their heating and even for the growing of plants. Glass windows were used by Romans because they understood the benefits of catching sun through glass and that the heat did not escape easily.

The glass panels were gathered into small greenhouse type outbuildings and seeds were planted and grown inside. Their season for growth was longer and they could start their gardens earlier than ever before.

Native Americans were using solar power from around the year 400 BC. They built homes into the sides of mountains and hills so that they could capture the sun in the daytime. Then the heat would escape in the night and be collected once again in the daytime.

Although Greece and America are thousands of miles and oceans away from each other, the sun’s power was such an obvious resource to them that they both recognized it in the period when they both began to build communities.

Several centuries went by before any thing else was discovered for the use of the sun’s power. By the end of the 18th century Horace de Saussare had a new invention. It was a sun collector that he used to boil ammonia to power cooling. It acted as a refrigerant and the sun was gathered in a conical device.

Steam engines were developed next, but were not particularly efficient. They were expensive to run and difficult to keep running once they were started. There was still great potential in the sun’s power, though, so experimentation continued and a solar cell was invented in the 1800′s, beginning the practical solar power history.

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