this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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If the first solar entrepreneur hadn't been kidnapped, would fossil fuels have dominated the 20th century? (techxplore.com)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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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[–] HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago (29 children)

Likey also didn't contain rare earth minerals - no where near as effective but could have been less damaging and easier to make.

Then again, could have been a combination of arsenic, asbestos and cocaine so who knows.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 11 points 2 years ago (28 children)

I was too curious:

Cove's device was a sort of thermocouple, and thus not based on newly-discovered natural processes or scientific principles. In the patent application the device was described as follows: A thermo-electric battery and appurtenances comprising a block of incombustible, non-conductive material, a series of pairs of elements comprising a plurality of elements formed of an alloy of antinomy and zinc, and a plurality of elements connecting said antinomy and zinc elements, said elements connecting said first-mentioned elements being alternatively of copper and of an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc.

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17744/22231

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Oh, it's just a thermopile put out in the sun.

I can see why it never caught on then. You'd be relying on the difference in temperature between the hot side of a thing painted black put in the sun and the cool side in the shade. The amount of energy you'd get from such a setup would be infinitecimal. I'd expect you'd need to do an absurd amount of work and use an absurd amount of material just to power a single house.

The amount of energy it would take to build a "solar cell" thermopile that'd generate 1.5v with a quite high internal resistance would probably be in the megawatt-hours, likely from coal and oil.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There were some numbers in one of the links I posted, hopefully that is able to give some solidity to the theory.

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It was early when I read the article, I got the impression that the 9W was for the furnace version of the thermopile electric generator.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

The larger versions generated 45, 60 and 240 watts. Another source said 500 watts.

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