this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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218
If the first solar entrepreneur hadn't been kidnapped, would fossil fuels have dominated the 20th century? (techxplore.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically when there’s a temperature difference been two different metals that are touching a small current is produced. You can also go backwards and use electricity to create a temperature difference (Peltier Effect).

They have niche applications because the effect is pretty small. Hardly a realistic substitute for solar panels that use the photovoltaic effect.

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

Does this mean - in theory - I can put one metal plate out in sun, one in shade, connect with a wire? Or is it a contact surface area thing?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Pretty sure they have to be together like a creme biscuit. You can't put one plate on the equator and one in Antarctica and generate infinite electricity

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, it's a DC current so would bleed off over distance anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well you could, but the resistance in a wire that long would kill it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure that does work but it’s not efficient.

Thermal solar generators do exist but they use a liquid as a heat transport mechanism. These use mirrors to focus the sun into a single point. In general you get more efficiency when there’s a larger temperature difference.

You could also get infinite energy by digging a deep hole since it gets hotter there deeper you dig. It’s just pretty expensive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Geothermal is the solution we need more of.