Solar applications are ancient
The use of solar solarenergy dates back in the earliest human civilizations. Though the use was not as complex as it is today, ancient people depended on the sun for life & so worshipped as their God, the most powerful source they knew. Ancient civilizations had already used the sun’s heat for comfort during cold days; ancient engineering has shown that people were trying maximizing the sun’s ray patterns to heat and light their homes.
Leonardo Da Vinci, the father of solar hot water systems
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the first to use solar power in a complex manner; Da Vince used concave mirrors to amplify the heat of the sun to boil water. Thus the idea of solar hot water system was born.
Earliest Solar Panels
Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov invented the very first solar cells based on the phenomena called the Photoelectric Effect by Heinrich Hertz but efficiency was still an issue back then. The modern solar panels that you are using today are owed to Russell Shoemaker Ohl who patented the technology in 1946, and solar cells continued to evolve up to this day, though more progress has been made in the last couple of years than in all that time previously.
Largest Solar Farm
The title for the largest solar farm in the world belongs to the Germans; the Bavaria Solar Park in Germany provides a maximum system output of 12 MW and powers about 3500 homes.
The Green Figure
A typical home solar panel (1KW) can save about 170 lbs of coal emitting 300 lbs of greenhouse gases. Do the math… and you’ll see how much carbon we can reduce.
The Sahara Dessert
If we could layout solar panels in the entire stretch of the Sahara desert, they would be capable of generate a mind bugling 450 terawatts of energy; that is enough to power the entire Earth for 35 years!
The Colossal Sun
The normal temperature of the sun is 5700c and the Earth is at 20c. About a million Earths can fit inside the sun and still have room to move freely.. The sun is estimated to be at its 4 billionth birthday and is expected to last for another 4 billion years.
