The argument in favor of fossil fuels is of historical importance because there were not many other viable substitutes for the 20th century. It is said that we owe fossil fuels because they were exhausted for our development. What if I told you there was an alternative, and that the fossil fuel interests could destroy it from the start?
While researching the economics of clean energy innovation, I came across a little-known story: Canadian inventor George Covey, one of the world's first renewable energy innovators. Cove invented indoor solar panels very similar to those installed in homes today; They even had a rudimentary battery to store electricity before the sun went down. Not only in the 1970s or 1950s, but in 1905.
Using sunlight, 114 years ago. Modern electricity / Hathi faith
New York-based Sun Electric Generator Corporation Cove had a capitalization of $5 million (about $160 million in today's money). In the year In 1909, the idea received widespread media attention. "With two days of sunlight... [the device] can store enough electricity to heat the average home for a week," says Modern Electric magazine.
Free solar energy can lift people out of poverty "by providing free light, heat and power, freeing the masses from the constant struggle for bread," he said. The article speculates that even airplanes could be powered by solar-powered batteries. It looks like the future of clean energy.
Self interest?
Then, on October 19, 1909, according to the New York Herald, Covey was kidnapped. A condition of his release forced him to give up his solar license and shut down the company. Cove refused and was later released near the Bronx Zoo.
But after this incident, the solar business started. Which seems strange. In the years before the abduction, he developed many solar devices and improved them each time.
Solar Panel Cove in 1909. Technical World Magazine / Wiki
Whether there were personal interests behind it, I cannot say for sure. At the time, some accused Covin of orchestrating the assassination for public purposes, although this seems to be unfounded, especially given the lack of media attention. Other sources suggest that a former investor may be behind this.
Fossil fuel startups are known to routinely use unfair practices against their competitors. Solar energy remains a threat because, unlike fossil fuels that require state-building, it is a democratic technology with universal solar access that can empower citizens and communities.
The world's first billionaire John D.
Similarly, famous inventor Thomas Edison contributed to Edison's technology by shooting horses, livestock, and even a man sentenced to death by his rival Nikola Tesla to demonstrate the dangers of using alternating current. Cove's Sun Electric with off-grid solar power could undermine Edison's business case for expanding electric grids using coal-fired power.
Although some scattered attempts at solar power development occurred after the Cove hack, there was no significant commercial activity for the next four decades until Bell Labs, the American research arm of the Bell Telephone Company, revived the idea. Meanwhile, coal and oil were growing at an unprecedented rate, supported by taxpayer money and government policies. The climate crisis was probably happening.
Four decades gone
When I learned about Cove's story, I wanted to know what the world had lost in 40 years and thought of an experiment. I used a concept called Wright's Law that applies to most renewable energy. The idea is that as production increases, costs will decrease due to process improvement and learning.
Solar pioneer George Cove patented one of the first tidal energy devices. World Technical Magazine / Wiki
I used this to calculate the year when solar coal would be cheaper. To do this, I understand that between 1910 and 1950, solar power increased somewhat, and how this additional "experience" quickly translated into cost reductions.
In a world where Cove was successful and solar power first competed with fossil fuels, coal was overtaken in 1997 when Bill Clinton was president and the Spice Girls were in their heyday. In fact, this event took place in 2017.
Alternative century
Of course, this still assumes that the power system will be the same. If the sun had been around since 1910 and had never taken off, the overall direction of energy innovation might have been very different, with more research money going into batteries to support decentralized solar, for example. The power grid and rail lines used to support the coal economy will receive much less investment.
Otherwise, recent manufacturing advances may have been essential to the sunrise, and Coe's continued work would not have made a big difference. In the end, it's impossible to know exactly which path humanity will take, but avoiding a 40-year pause in solar development could save the world a lot of carbon emissions.
It's painful to think about "what will happen" as the climate fades before our eyes, but it can also give us something useful: an idea as old as the fossil fuel companies themselves.
It was inevitable that fossil fuels would continue to dominate the 21st century. It was a choice but not one that many of us were talking about. Fossil fuels are first supported because we don't understand their deadly environmental impact, and then the lobby becomes so powerful that they resist change.
But there is hope. Solar power now provides electricity unlike any man has ever seen, and the costs of its implementation are falling. The faster we go, the more we save. If we embrace the optimism first seen in Covey's era and make the right technological decisions, we can still achieve the solar-powered world he envisioned all those years ago.
