Solar thermal power
"One must not believe, despite the silence of modern writings, that the idea of using solar heat for mechanical operations is recent. On the contrary, one must recognize that this idea is very ancient and its slow development across the centuries it has given birth to various curious devices." -- Augustine Mouchot, 1878, at the Universal Exposition, Paris, France.
In the 1870s and 80s, many scientists feared exhaustion of coal reserves.
Abel Pifre, Mouchot's assistant, set up an engine to print The Solar Journal in 1880.
Most of the research focus was on Algeria, not on temperate zones like France. Water pumping, water distillation and cooking were the main uses demonstrated for the solar plants.
Solar energy systems would be the answer.
Tropical nations would supply power to the industrial world.
The underlying racism of this 1883 illustration should not be overlooked.
"The time will come when Europe must stop her mills and factories for want of coal. Upper Egypt then, with her never-ceasing sun power, will invite the European manufacturer to move his machinery and erect his mills on the firm ground along the sides of the alluvial plain of the Nile, where sufficient power can be otbainted to enable him to run more spindles than a hundred Manchesters."
-- John Ericsson, Mechanic and Builder, July, 1887
JOHN ERICSSON , inventor of the ironclad ship USS Monitor during the Civil War, believed solar engines would be needed in the future.
"Sun power is now a fact and no longer in the 'beautiful possibility' stage... It will have a history like aerial navigation. Up to twelve years ago it was a mere possibility and no one took it seriously." -- Frank Schuman
WWI put Schuman's project on hold. Afterwards, the Middle Eastern oil fields opened, and Schuman's experiment was forgotten until the 1970s.
English engineer Aubrey Eaneas was convinced that solar energy would open the great American west to settlement.
Starting in 1901 he demonstrated his enormous solar concentrator at a friend's ostrich ranch in Pasadena, Calif.
Wind and hail damage halted most of the subsequent demonstrations of solar power.
Aburey Eaneas' concentrating solar collector was fragile and only developed 1.5 horsepower.
CHARLES ABBOTT A solar physicist whose major work was to correlate weather and climate with solar activity, Abbott also took an interest in practical solar applications.
The Public Health Service measured air pollution by creating a standard solar index and then measuring the amount of sunlight blocked by coal smoke in major cities. Pollution in New York, in 1927, was blocking one third to one half of sunlight.
Jimmy Carter and the White House solar panels, installed in 1979.
Ronald Reagan ordered the panels taken off the roof a few years later.
The Department of Energy's Barstow, Calif. Solar One "power tower" featured heavy mirrored heliostats on computerized motors turning all day long to focus sunlight on a central furnace unit. (below)
The 10 MW plant operated between 1982 and 1988 and was said to produce power at 15 cents per kilowatt hour, or about $14,000 per installed kilowatt.
Solar One -- a dramatic government-financed failure.
1982 - 1988
Why was the Solar One plant so expensive?
It was over-engineered with heavy heliostats and computerized controls.
These heliostat units are idle today because they are more expensive to operate and repair than the value of the energy they would generate.
If someone had said, "Build the world's biggest technological turkey to prove that solar power doesn't really work," the Solar One plant is the one they would have built.
Starting in 1983, LUZ International built over 350 megawatts of solar electric generating stations (SEGS) in the Mojave desert of California. Although still operating, In the roller-coaster tax credit environment of the early 1990s, LUZ went bankrupt.
Original cost in 1988 dollars was 24 cents per kilowatt-hour, but by 1993 costs had been reduced to 7 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Berger, 1997).
Solar Energy Generating Systems by LUZ
1983 - 1991
Technical success, financial turmoil
The plant is still generating electricity -- cheaply and reliably.