Who Invented Solar Panels?

A Swiss scientist by the name of Horace de Saussure designed and built the first solar collector in 1767. Well that certainly goes back some time and looks at who was harnessing the sun's energy, but he did not turn the sun's energy into electricity.

A young 19 year old scientist had that privilege by the name of Edmund Becquerel in 1839. He had turned energy from the sun into electricity, known as the "photovoltaic effect". Not that it was a bad thing but it was very inefficient and not very practical for the time. Therefore, like so many other great discoveries it sat idle for many years.

Home Panel Solar Politics

After recently reading a New York Times article, we started thinking about home panel solar politics. You see, although solar power is gaining popularity as a renewable energy solution for home, it will never become mainstream without the backing from the federal government.
A poll by the Nuclear Power Industry revealed that the number one choice for generating power was not from nuclear, coal or natural gas, but from solar energy. However, at the time the poll was taken solar only provided for about 0.01 percent of America's power supply. Solar power is popular, but there's not enough investment!

In Washington, where the energy policies are signed, solar power lobbyists generally work with small budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars. Now when you compare it to the tens of millions of dollars that nuclear, coal, gas and oil lobbyists have available, you can only guess which energy policies gain approval by our beloved politicians.

Oil Companies Using Solar - The Ultimate Irony

GlassPoint is Using Solar Power to Draw Oil From the Earth

The energy debate is often categorized as the fossil fuel companies versus the clean energy companies. While there was certainly a major battle early on, the line has become much less clear these days. This is particularly true when you consider the fact that many oil companies now incorporate solar energy as part of the energy production for their facilities. Yes, it is the ultimate irony.

Oil is often hammered as being the ultimate evil these days. Well, it isn't. The room you are sitting in and the computer you are reading this on are all made possible by oil. In fact, our society never would have advanced to this level without it. Oil is not just in your car and gasoline. It is the base material of plastics and just about every critical material we use to make things. The problem, of course, is oil is a toxic pollutant. This is particularly true when burned, but it can cause messes in its natural form as we see in the BP gulf mess. This means a move to cleaner fuel sources just makes sense.