Past and future of solar
giorgio fog
As I write this (early October 2008) the price of oil on international markets
is about 450 € per tonne;
the first of July 2008, three months ago, it was 690 euro per tonne. E '
the oil crisis finally over?
calm can return to a world with gasoline and diesel fuel at low prices for most
glory of the manufacturers of SUVs and powerful cars?
in a world in which electricity flows in low-priced homes, computers
in metal smelters?
may well be that it is, but it would be a grave mistake
translate this hope into a decline
the use of renewable energy sources, yet grew up in a market addict
public incentives insured by the great fear of the high oil price and
which would disappear if we return to a situation
energy "normal." Other times faster
hasty enthusiasm "solar" as soon as they are dissolved.
Solar power has always been the daughter of scarcity. What you may think
as the first act of this story begins in
second half of the nineteenth century industrial society depended
coal, used in quantities large enough to cause concern
depletion of its reserves and was identified as a blatant
source of air pollution. Of a possible future shortage
of coal had spoken the English economist Stanley Jevons (1835-1882)
in "The Coal Question", published in 1865 and 1888 (a third would
edition appeared in 1906). Then many began to
watch the sun as an energy source and as a substitute for coal
, both in the perspective of development of economic activities
colonies in Africa. In 1863 the Italian physicist Antonio Pacinotti
(1841-1912) had published his first observations
photovoltaic and thermoelectric effect, which suggested the application for the production of electricity from the sun
French Mouchot August (1825 -
1912) in the 60 and 70 century built machines with which
by mirrors, producing steam that powered an engine;
this invention received a great deal of attention around the world in 1866
the car was shown to Napoleon III, who gave an award to the inventor
; version improved
was presented at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1878.
On another level, not engineering, Lev Tostsoi (1828-1910)
in 1873, in a "reasoning" posted in the "Four books to read,"
one of the great works of folk pedagogy of the Russian writer, wrote
"The sun is warm," and explained that the heat of the Sun are
wood and coal, grass and food,
wind and water mills that move --- or, as we would say, biomass,
thermal energy, wind, water. Even the writer of fiction
Lasswitz Kurt (1848-1910) wrote a novel, "Auf zwei Planeten
" in 1897 which talked about the use of solar energy.
In 1872-74 the Chilean engineer Carlos Wilson had built a large Chilean
in the Plateau distiller capable of providing drinking water for many decades
the workers of the mines of saltpeter
(if it is mentioned in a previous article). In 1884 the American
John Ericsson (1803-1889) had built a solar motor that had attracted much attention in
around the world. In the same years
German physicist Friedrich Kohlrausch (1840-1910) had indicated, in
book "Die Energie der Arbeit" 1900,
electricity obtained by concentrating the sun's heat on heat engines, as the source of energy that would
liberated "man" from the toil of work. The
1800 closes with the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1900 where
Rudolph Diesel (1858-1913) presented his
internal combustion engine fueled with peanut oil (if they have spoken
some time ago in this newspaper) .
The first decade of the twentieth century is also full of enzymes and
inventions. Italian professor James Ciamician (1857-1922) in
two famous conferences in 1903 and again in 1912, thought a
day, with solar energy "industries would be put in place a
perfect cycle, to produce machines that work with the force of light
the day, which costs nothing and does not pay taxes! "
In 1909 the British physicist JJ Thomson (1856-1940)
initial report of the Congress of the British Association at Winnipeg,
speaks of the sun from which one day mankind will be able to draw the energy needed
its activities. "When will this day our centers of industrial activity will probably
transported
hot deserts of the Sahara." German August Bebel (1840-1913)
in the 50th edition of his book "Woman and Socialism," 1909, speaks at length about
a socialist world in which solar energy will replace the human effort and cites
Kohlrausch and Thomson.
In the same years are multiplying
solar inventions and machines, made by Clarence Kemp, Aubrey Eneas, Charles Tellier, Henry E.
Wills, Frank Shuman (1862-1918) and many others. In 1903
Charles Henry Pope (1841-1918) published a book entitled: "Solar
heat. Its Practical Applications." The first fifteen years of the twentieth century saw
working scientists and inventors in all countries, a multinational
of renewable energy: solar, wind, hydroelectric
, daughter also of the force of falling water kept in motion by the Sun
Much of this was swept away by World War I
.
The second act of the story sun came between the wars in
period of "autarky" in the plural, because the same solutions have been adopted in various
autarky, the fascist (
in Italy, Germany, in France occupied by the Nazis), but also those
Soviet Union, the United States, England. The autarky
share some characters, including, of course, the
use of renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass).
Ethyl alcohol produced by fermentation from carbohydrates derived from plant biomass
"solar" has been used as fuel for combustion engines and
, before the advent of the petrochemical,
as raw material for the synthesis of butadiene necessary for the
synthetic rubber, a butadiene from biomass, then. I "gasogene"
applied to various machines and vehicles, had a stove in which
was heated wood (biomass, solar too) that
decomposed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas mixture which were then initiated
engine . In the years 1920-1945
solar houses were built in the United States
, solar distillers by the Italians in Libya and the Americans
for the armed forces, wind engines in all countries, in Italy the company
Vivarelli Grosseto issued wind engines,
to lift water from wells in the areas of land reform in Tuscany;
would later be used in Puglia
after World War II. They are, for example, made the first engines
wind on a large scale, vertical, such as the Savonius type and derivatives,
around 1920, and the type blades, such as Putnam
thirty years, Vermont, United States . Solar and wind machines
engines were built after the Revolution, the Soviet Union in the framework of modernization
agriculture.
was built in 1931 in Yalta a wind generator of 100 kW, with
rotor 30 meters in diameter and production of 280,000 kWh per year electric
.
Also in the thirties the French Claude George (1870-1960) in Cuba has
built the first plant that produces electricity with
motors driven by the temperature difference between layers
surface of the oceans, heated by the sun and the cold
deep at a constant temperature, multiplied
inventions for the use of force wave, son of the wind and then the Sun
For the second time everything was swept away by World War II
.
Third Act: the end of World War II was a world devastated
hungry of the need for reconstruction and energy. In the years from 1950 to 1965
it was not clear if the promise of nuclear energy
were maintained, the countries emerging from colonial status
demanded new levels of energy, the sun seemed
great solution for poor countries. This has had the invention of
semiconductor photocells in 1952, were built
solar stills, solar homes, solar cars. Remember that
hot water and cold water in large water bodies are layered
without mixing and stratification that can power
thermal machines: cold water below the tropical oceans (machine
Claude in Cuba), hot water below the lake Bear
in Transylvania (solar ponds). A great
United Nations Conference on the "new" renewable energy was held in Rome in 1961, but was
followed by a wave of cheap oil and a new
decline of the "solar passion" thousands of documents ended up in archives
forgotten or destroyed.
Act IV: the end of 1973 began a rapid rise in the price of oil
, in the past few months from three to more than eleven dollars (of
then) a barrel, then rediscovered in many that we could leave
from slavery
use of fossil fuels to solar energy and renewable energy. Rivers of public money and funds
rained on research - the famous
Projects aimed "CNR --- and still other companies to reinvent
machines and solar devices,
return to order in the markets' energy, nuclear power and the illusions on
all the solar ended once again in the archives.
The fifth act is that which is recited by the early twenty-first century
, and once more increases in oil prices, "
Hubbert curve" and the danger of depletion of hydrocarbon reserves,
greenhouse effect, have given new breath innovative sources, panels
major projects for bioethanol and biodiesel, to large installations
concentration gigantizzazione of things already seen and done and
aside, and also the desire of public money. I would not want the new
market turmoil and the new dreams of nuclear energy
do end up forgetting everything, to shelve new
renewable sources, I believe, are the only possible way to
the energy of the future
in industrialized countries and in poorer ones, different solutions are designed and adapted
case by case basis.
Essential to this end have the courage to look ahead and
history. The survival experiences, successes and even failures of
, should be the responsibility of a state that had at heart
publicum bonum, but judging from poverty archives
solar energy there is little to be happy. To my knowledge the only archive
existing solar park, but for everyone,
and is located at the Luigi Micheletti Foundation in Brescia
www.musil.bs.it inventoried and placed in the new home of
Library, archive and museum of technology in Rodengo Saiano
near Brescia, with many hundreds of feet of documents, books,
photographs, drawings of the past calendar year. For those who want to start or restart
with renewables, there there is everything.