Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This book tells an amazing story -- that of solar powered steam engines, great BIG ones -- on the banks of the Nile in Egypt before the First World War. Who would have thunk it?
The writing is gripping and reads like an Indiana Jones adventure yarn -- this isn't a textbook. And yet, though told like a story, this is nonfiction, and all this stuff really happened. The author points out that the science stories we remember widely from the 19th century, like those of Edison and Marconi, are those that impact our lives today. The story of solar power a century ago has been forgotten because most of us dismiss solar as a marginal technology, one that doesn't (or maybe can't) have a big impact on our lives. That view appears to be changing.
The writer traces the practical applications of solar power technology back to the Greeks and takes us through the 'burning mirrors' of the Middle Ages, but the main focus of the story is on an American entrepreneur who, having made millions from patenting safety devices as a young man, devoted the rest of his life to building huge solar-powered steam engines -- machines he believed could supply most of the energy the world would need in the 20th century.
Solar-powered steam fell into the doldrums during after World War I, but now it is experiencing a revival. There are solar-powered steam plants in California and Spain today (one in Barstow here in CA, which I have seen myself) that can produce 12 megawatts, enough to power 10,000 houses, and it appears that solar powered steam may give PV a run for its money in some locations.
This was a great read. I couldn't put it down.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Power of Light : The Epic Story of Man's Quest to Harness the Sun
An original investigation into the social and technological history of solar power
From the days of Archimedes and Leonardo, the earliest efforts to harness the power of the sun have become the stuff of legend.
But it was not until the industrial revolution, with its great demands for fuel, that inventors --like Prometheus carrying fire from Mt. Olympus--began to build machines capable of channeling the sun's rays into usable energy.
In The Power of Light, solar energy expert Frank Kryza recounts the dramatic saga of solar invention, from its optimistic dawning in the mid-19th century to its impending triumph today. With a fervent passion for his subject, the author introduces solar pioneers such as Auguste Mouchot, whose solar-powered steam engine amazed Napoleon III, and Frank Shuman, whose solar pumping station, in 1911, became the largest and most cost-effective machine prior to the space age.
While presenting a thorough and original investigation into this little-known chapter of science history, The Power of Light offers a sober meditation on the revolutionary impact technology often has on society.
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