Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy
The definitive history of solar power and technology

Even as concern over climate change and energy security fuels a boom in solar technology, many still think of solar as a twentieth-century wonder. Few realize that the first photovoltaic array appeared on a New York City rooftop in 1884, or that brilliant engineers in France were using solar power in the 1860s to run steam engines, or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a single solar engine to irrigate three hundred acres of citrus trees. Fewer still know that Leonardo da Vinci planned to make his fortune by building half-mile-long mirrors to heat water, or that the Bronze Age Chinese used hand-size solar-concentrating mirrors to light fires the way we use matches and lighters today.

With thirteen new chapters, Let It Shine is a fully revised and expanded edition of A Golden Thread, John Perlin’s classic history of solar technology, detailing the past forty-plus years of technological developments driving today’s solar renaissance. This unique and compelling compendium of humankind’s solar ideas tells the fascinating story of how our predecessors throughout time, again and again, have applied the sun to better their lives — and how we can, too.
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Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy
The definitive history of solar power and technology

Even as concern over climate change and energy security fuels a boom in solar technology, many still think of solar as a twentieth-century wonder. Few realize that the first photovoltaic array appeared on a New York City rooftop in 1884, or that brilliant engineers in France were using solar power in the 1860s to run steam engines, or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a single solar engine to irrigate three hundred acres of citrus trees. Fewer still know that Leonardo da Vinci planned to make his fortune by building half-mile-long mirrors to heat water, or that the Bronze Age Chinese used hand-size solar-concentrating mirrors to light fires the way we use matches and lighters today.

With thirteen new chapters, Let It Shine is a fully revised and expanded edition of A Golden Thread, John Perlin’s classic history of solar technology, detailing the past forty-plus years of technological developments driving today’s solar renaissance. This unique and compelling compendium of humankind’s solar ideas tells the fascinating story of how our predecessors throughout time, again and again, have applied the sun to better their lives — and how we can, too.
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Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

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Overview

The definitive history of solar power and technology

Even as concern over climate change and energy security fuels a boom in solar technology, many still think of solar as a twentieth-century wonder. Few realize that the first photovoltaic array appeared on a New York City rooftop in 1884, or that brilliant engineers in France were using solar power in the 1860s to run steam engines, or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a single solar engine to irrigate three hundred acres of citrus trees. Fewer still know that Leonardo da Vinci planned to make his fortune by building half-mile-long mirrors to heat water, or that the Bronze Age Chinese used hand-size solar-concentrating mirrors to light fires the way we use matches and lighters today.

With thirteen new chapters, Let It Shine is a fully revised and expanded edition of A Golden Thread, John Perlin’s classic history of solar technology, detailing the past forty-plus years of technological developments driving today’s solar renaissance. This unique and compelling compendium of humankind’s solar ideas tells the fascinating story of how our predecessors throughout time, again and again, have applied the sun to better their lives — and how we can, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781608687916
Publisher: New World Library
Publication date: 02/15/2022
Pages: 544
Sales rank: 582,471
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.21(d)

About the Author

An international expert on solar energy and forestry, John Perlin has lectured extensively on these topics in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Perlin is the author of A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization. He has mentored those involved in realizing photovoltaic, solar hot water, and energy-efficiency technologies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he is a visiting scholar in the department of physics.

Table of Contents

Foreword Mark Z. Jacobson xi

Preface to the Paperback Edition: The Age of the Sun Begins Again xv

Introduction xix

Part I Early Use of the Sun

Chapter 1 Chinese Solar Architecture (6000 BCE-) 3

Chapter 2 Solar Architecture in Ancient Greece (500 BCE-300 CE) 13

Chapter 3 Ancient Roman Solar Architecture (too BCE-500 CE) 23

Chapter 4 Burning Mirrors (400 BCE-1700s) 37

Chapter 5 Heat for Horticulture (1500s-1800s) 57

Chapter 6 Solar Hot Boxes (1767-1800s) 73

Part II Power from the Sun

Chapter 7 The First Solar Motors (1860-1880) 81

Chapter 8 Two American Pioneers (1872-1904) 99

Chapter 9 Low-Temperature Solar Engines (1885-1915) 119

Chapter 10 The First Practical Solar Engine (1906-1914) 129

Part III Solar Water Heating

Chapter 11 The First Commercial Solar Water Heaters (1891-1911) 145

Chapter 12 Hot Water, Day and Night (1909-1941) 163

Chapter 13 A Flourishing Solar Industry (1923-1950) 179

Chapter 14 Solar Water Heating Worldwide, Part 1 (1930s-1960s) 195

Chapter 15 Saving Airmen with the Sun (1943-) 211

Part IV Solar House Heating

Chapter 16 Solar Building during the Enlightenment (1807-1850) 219

Chapter 17 Solar Architecture in Europe after Faust and Vorherr (1850-1939) 237

Chapter 18 Solar Heating in Early America (1200-1912) 251

Chapter 19 An American Revival (1931-1950s) 261

Chapter 20 Solar Collectors for House Heating (1882-1962) 279

Part V Photovoltaics

Chapter 21 From Selenium to Silicon (1876-) 303

Chapter 22 Saved by the Space Race (1971-) 317

Chapter 23 The First Large-Scale Photovoltaic Applications on Earth (1968-) 327

Part VI The Post-Oil Embargo Era

Chapter 24 Prelude to the Embargo (1945-) 341

Chapter 25 Solar in the 1970s and 1980s 351

Chapter 26 America's First Solar City (1920s-) 371

Chapter 27 Solar Water Heating Worldwide, Part 2 (1973-) 389

Chapter 28 Photovoltaics for the World (1978-) 401

Chapter 29 Better Solar Cells, Cheaper Solar Cells (1955-) 425

Epilogue 437

Acknowledgments 453

Notes 455

Illustration Credits and Permission Acknowledgments 499

Index 505

About the Author 521

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