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If the first solar entrepreneur hadn't been kidnapped, would fossil fuels have dominated the 20th century? (techxplore.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The first commercial PV solar product was nah just in 1909.

See story above, and original article in Modern Electrics magazine in 1909:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051407073

EDIT

Since people didn't read past the headline, the article is about a startup company in 1905 that developed a commercial electrical solar panel by 1909 and was worth 160 million in today's money.

In 1909, the inventor of the solar panel was kidnapped and ordered by his kidnappers to destroy all information about this solar panel. He was eventually released, although he did not destroy the solar panel or his documentation, he did shut down his company.

So this is a pretty fascinating development considering that at this time period we actually did have early production electric cars that were manufactured in larger quantities than gas vehicles, and now we learn that solar panels were commercially available, at least for a short time.

And the solar panels could generate a fair amount of electricity:

500 volts per 10 square ft, and a smaller demonstration panel that was 3 ft x 4 ft could generate 60 watts of power (10 volts @6 amps).

Additionally, the panels were designed to charge a battery backup system.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Seebeck Effect

This is how fridges work in reverse right? Apply current and make one side really cold?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The device you're thinking of might be a peltier or thermoelectric cooler (TEC). But yes. They're way less efficient than a vapor compression refrigerator, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Ohhhh.... Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fridges work on gas pressure - compress a gas it heats up, decompress a gas it cools..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wait.. then what am I thinking of? I'm sure this effect is used somewhere

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Looks like you are also a kiwi (that or an AI bot cus i see you everywhere) so probably in an electric chilibin- the reverse effect can be used to cool one plate of metal and heat up the other side.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The whole internet is AI bots bro. You're the only real human here.

If I was a human though, I would be Kiwi. Kia ora!

Yeah, I think that's what I was thinking of.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You are thinking of a thermo-electric cooler (TEC) or peltier cooler. They actually are used on smaller wine fridges but not full sized fridges. They are light-weight, electrically efficient, and reliable. They were also used in the early days of CPU overclocking.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Like the very small fridges that work for a single soda can? Refrigerators use the liquid/gas transition to move heat around. It’s much more efficient.

The only real advantage of Peltiers are simplicity and size.