Interested in solar power? How about some facts and history of solar power.

• Horace Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799), a Swiss physicist, geologist, and early Alpine explorer was the inventor of the hotbox which later was succesfully used by British astronomer John Herschel to cook food while on expedition in Africa.
• The well known and respected Albert Einstein received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his experiments on photo voltaic and solar power.
• In 1958 Solar power was used to power space exploration equipment such as satellites and space stations. This is probably the first know commercial use of solar energy.
• In 1981, the first solar powered aircraft was produced by Paul Macready. The aircraft successfully managed to fly from France to England.
• Germany is major solar power producer despite its less than favorable climate. The energy generated during sunny days is stored in batteries.
• Energy from the sun travels for approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth.
• We can produce the same amount of electricity from 1 ton of sand (siliconis used in the production of photo voltaic cells) as burning 500 ton of coal.
• In 1982, the first large scale power plants was opened in California.