One argument put forward in defense of fossil fuels is that they were a historical necessity, because there was no other viable substitute for much of the 20th century. We owe fossil fuels a debt of gratitude, the argument goes, because they supercharged our development. But what if I told you there was a viable alternative, and that it may have been sabotaged by fossil fuel interests from its very inception?

The first commercial PV solar product was nah just in 1909.

See story above, and original article in Modern Electrics magazine in 1909:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051407073

EDIT

Since people didn’t read past the headline, the article is about a startup company in 1905 that developed a commercial electrical solar panel by 1909 and was worth 160 million in today’s money.

In 1909, the inventor of the solar panel was kidnapped and ordered by his kidnappers to destroy all information about this solar panel. He was eventually released, although he did not destroy the solar panel or his documentation, he did shut down his company.

So this is a pretty fascinating development considering that at this time period we actually did have early production electric cars that were manufactured in larger quantities than gas vehicles, and now we learn that solar panels were commercially available, at least for a short time.

And the solar panels could generate a fair amount of electricity:

500 volts per 10 square ft, and a smaller demonstration panel that was 3 ft x 4 ft could generate 60 watts of power (10 volts @6 amps).

Additionally, the panels were designed to charge a battery backup system.

    • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Basically when there’s a temperature difference been two different metals that are touching a small current is produced. You can also go backwards and use electricity to create a temperature difference (Peltier Effect).

      They have niche applications because the effect is pretty small. Hardly a realistic substitute for solar panels that use the photovoltaic effect.

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Does this mean - in theory - I can put one metal plate out in sun, one in shade, connect with a wire? Or is it a contact surface area thing?

        • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nzEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Pretty sure they have to be together like a creme biscuit. You can’t put one plate on the equator and one in Antarctica and generate infinite electricity

        • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Sure that does work but it’s not efficient.

          Thermal solar generators do exist but they use a liquid as a heat transport mechanism. These use mirrors to focus the sun into a single point. In general you get more efficiency when there’s a larger temperature difference.

          You could also get infinite energy by digging a deep hole since it gets hotter there deeper you dig. It’s just pretty expensive.