links for 2009-11-21

Solar 101 – History of Solar Energy in California
The California Energy Commission on the state’s solar history is lacking some pretty key elements of the story.
(tags: solar california energy photovoltaics PV)

Crimes Against the Future: The Demise of Luz

In 1992, Newton Becker went before Congress to tell the story of his company’s demise. Many companies have gone bankrupt and many more will, but Becker’s company, Luz International, happened to be the largest solar company in the world.
“I am here much like a crime victim trying to change a law,” Becker said.
The crime here, [...]

1944: “Sun May Aid Heating of Postwar Homes”

“The sun may be harnessed to serve as an auxiliary heating unit in postwar homes, through proper arrangement of large picture windows,” wrote the Washington Post in 1944.
Many other journalists were also high on the technology, largely because of experiments in the Chicago suburbs conducted by the architect George Keck with double-paned Libby-Owens-Ford Glass Company [...]

Link History Guide to the Early 20th Century Solar Engine

Transactions of the American Electrochemcial Society
THE CONSERVATION AND UTILIZATION OF NATURALSOURCES OF POWER
By John H. Finney,
Secretary of the Appalachian National Forest Association. Kind of a fascinating little work bringing the conservation ethos to energy, etc.

Technical world magazine
“WHEN our coal fields are exhausted of their stored carbon, science will convert water into light and heat, and [...]