HISTORY 

While the subject of solar energy appears to be a topic of a modern society, attempts at harnessing the energy of the sun can be dated back to the beginnings of civilization.  In any discussion of its use for solar powered vehicles it is deemed necessary to give a brief synopsis of the evolution of solar energy in itself.

Although the main reason for using this alternative energy is most positively an environmental one, the first ideas rose upon religious, military and industrial reasons.  In the beginning these uses ranged anywhere from the ridiculous to the completely ingenious.

Lets rocket back in time and see what happened...
 
First Century B.C.
The Chinese and Greeks found uses in religious ceremonies.  According to Plutarch when the sacred flame of Delphi went out, it could only be re-lit by a "pure and unpolluted ray from the sun."  This was done using concave mirrors much like how a little boy today would burn a doodle bug with a magnifying glass, (e-mail me if you don't know what I'm talking about)


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Second Century B.C.
The oldest method of exploitation is through heat.  The Romans in their tiring efforts in gathering wood began to place their buildings in such a way as to capture as much light as possible in the winter and as little as possible in the summer.  They also began the first uses of greenhouses.  Solar energy was so important to them that "sun-right' guarantees were written into their code of law. 


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Thirteenth - Twentieth Century
13th
        Military strategists also gave there best shot at a solar doomsday weapon, but they forgot that it would be rendered useless if they were to be attacked on a cloudy day or if the sun wasn't located  behind the attackers backs. (It's funny when you remember that Dr. Edward Teller attempted to similarly persuade Ronald Reagen of this same sort of weaponry)
16th
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented ideas for a large mirror to power a giant dye factory.  Many small scale uses began to emerge successfully from this.
• Artisans used solar heat to solders sections of metal and alchemists used them to separate oils from flowers submerged in water.
• The French government even distributed solar ovens to the french legions
20th
 The 1900's through the 1930's found itself in the first true solar boom.  The wild west of the Americas required large amounts of power to run its many irrigation, mining, agricultural, and other industries.  Solar power came to be a easy and reliable source and solar water heaters became common.  The discovery of oil and gas however left this boom short lived.  The water heaters hung on to as late as the 1940's but as power utilities were able to reduce prices they slowly died out.
 
 

What was the problem?

The major problem was their inability to capture all of the power of the sun.  At the time they were only able to harness less than 1 % of the sun's power.  That means that of all the sunlight that came upon their devices less than 1% emerged as usable electricity.  By the 1960's, despite new materials and technologies this number only rose to about 6%.  This allowed them to be cost effective enough to power satellites but not much else.  Today's numbers are well above 30% !

Today's technology focuses on trying to keep more energy in the cell.  Engineers work hard at ideas that allow them to "trap" the light so more of it may be absorbed.  But as you would assume there is a definite trade off between efficiency and cost.  The better a device works the higher it's cost.

The advances of semiconductors and other modern technology are quickly advancing the field of solar energy and are proving to become cost efficient.  It has found itself reappearing in two markets.  "Peak- power" generators in the utilities market and providing power for areas that do not have networks of power plants.  The oil industry is also finding many uses for this solar energy.

It may be that the development of solar power may follow a similar path of the development of the computer. 


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Solar Vehicles
So now we know where solar energy found it's roots.  Lets get to CARS!
As the technology becomes better, electric cars are able to store energy and run for longer and longer periods of time.
Some cars are able to run at night on energy they harness during the day.  Most all cars are designed to have the least wind resistance as possible.  Do to the small amount of available energy, this becomes an obvious factor.
This is a new and developing field and the future will give us much more history for this area.

There are many races being set up for solar cars.  Universities such as MIT and ISU participate and these races greatly increase
performance within the field.  As competitors learn from each other and constantly improve in the name of competition, solar
cars are also improving.  Current races are averaging speeds of 40 M.P.H. and are done over distances as far as 1150 miles.
(a nine day race)


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SURF THE NET:
 

• If you would like to see some solar teams PROJECTS click here 
• If you would like to learn a little more about SOLAR AND ELECTRIC CARS click here
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