History of Solar Solar technology may look like something relatively new, but in fact, it’s among the oldest of all technologies. In prehistoric times, our predecessors found ways to reflect the sun’s heat to make fires.

In the 2nd Century B.C., the ancient Greeks recorded that a scientist reflected sunlight off bronze shields to burn the wooden boats of its rivals. Later, in the 3rd and 4th Centuries A.D., Romans positioned buildings, such as bathhouses, to the south to enable the sun to warm the structures. While these primitive uses don’t bear much resemblance to today’s modern uses of the sun’s heat, the first incarnation of today’s solar cells was constructed by a Swiss scientist in 1767.

Horace de Saussure created a “hot box” that collected solar energy to cook food. It was as long ago as 1816 that the first engine that ran from solar thermal technology was constructed. In the late 1819, the first solar water heater became available. The use of solar to heat structures began shortly after World War II, when a glass company released a book entitled Your Solar House, and the subsequent invention of the silicon photovoltaic cell, which steadily increased in efficiencies. In 1977, the U.S. Department of Energy began researching how solar technology could be used for power.

Many other countries were also investigating solar, and the first solar powered gas stations and solar-powered cars were born in 1982. In the decades to follow, photovoltaic systems were tied into power grids, solar-powered airplanes were invented and skyscrapers began incorporating photovoltaic panels to harness the sun’s energy.