This is a photo of the world’s first rooftop solar panel installation. It looks much like I would expect: a more rustic version of modern solar panels. What stunned me was date: this photo is from 1884! More details here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/brief-history-solar-panels-180972006/
@katemorley It feels like we were on the cusp of something great around the turn of the last century. And then the motor car arrived and we never looked back.
@katemorley
I am intrigued by the possible nefarious actions of a certain oil magnate in the story of these panels - I say possible but nothing in the last 100 years of the oil industries actions would suggest otherwise.
Fascinating, isn't it. Photovoltaik could have been massively in the market since 100 years and yet we used mainly oil, coal and gas.
Thanks I'm adding it to my collection of facts.
The first electric car is from 1880 and they where more popular than the one with gasoline in 1900.
But then gasoline véhicule got cheaper...
The timeline could have been so different, without all the lead poisoning and all the CO2 in the atmosphere.
@katemorley cheap oil destroyed it all, because capitalism
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@katemorley/115994947626865723
@katemorley Essentially, we lost 150 years to stuff that kills us.
Thank you Edmond Becquerel.
@simoncox @katemorley *magnate*
@katemorley this is a brilliant fact. I had no idea. Thanks for sharing the link too!
They have a few in the transport museum where I used to live. It's really eye-opening to see electric cars casually lined up next to steam powered ones -- and all the notes pointing out how the electric ones are better.
It was always just battery life and weight getting in the way. So, there probably isn't an alternative present out there with all-electric vehicles because that problem was just too hard to solve fast enough.
@katemorley Back in the 1970s when photovoltaic panels weren't very efficient I wanted to install solar water heating panels on our roof but the local authority refused planning permission saying that they would be aesthetically inacceptable because brown tile roofs were the standard in our neighbourhood. Now everyone has solar panels on their roofs. How things have changed !
@katemorley Some good detail on this and we are not sure on how it works exactly.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2021/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-solar-panel/
I am stunned! Unbelievable
and so awesome!
@katemorley Fascinating! The article also shows very well with the named years, how WWI and WWII killed every scientific development. Wars are an immense throwback.
@dan Before, they had even e-cars. The historical problem: fuel was a lot cheaper. And WWI was driven by cheap fossile fuels. Without them, people had not been able to install killing on an industrial scale. This industry was more important than individual cars (until Ford ... another story). @katemorley
@khleedril @katemorley
Oh, thank you!
@katemorley Enjoy this bonkers article by Bellingcat researching the origin of that photo.
An inventor poses for a photo alongside his creation, then disappears.
bellingcat (www.bellingcat.com)
@katemorley @BlumeEvolution @Ollivdb How do you plug such solar pannel to an AC grid? If you don't connect it to a grid, what does your electrical installation looks like, and what can you do with it?
My point is that solar panels are part of a system, and it's the system overall performance that defines if and how it'll be used.
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