Birthplace Of Solar Power
Olney, Illinois
One would think that the birthplace of solar power would be someplace really sunny, like southern California or Florida. Or at a nexus known for its scientific research, like a university or technical company. Not according to this plaque. "The first experimental solar power plant was built in Olney, Illinois," it reads, "by H.E. Willsie and John Boyle Jr." in 1902. The names Willsie and Boyle are not mentioned in textbooks along with Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse, which tells you all that you need to know about the ultimate impact of their experiments. And that maybe they really should have built their plant in Arizona.
Interestingly, 1902 was the same year in which white squirrels mysteriously appeared in the town of Olney. Coincidence? Or are Olney's bleached-out nutcrackers the unforeseen result of some sun-boosting experiment gone wildly wrong?
The "Birthplace of Solar Power" is kind of a silly claim if it actually didn't work. Various timelines of the use of solar power go back thousands of years to when people used glass or mirrors to concentrate heat from the sun. The trick is in the ability to store solar power and use it when you need it. After a century of bad descriptions and fanciful drawings of such photovoltaic storage devices, Bell Labs tested the first actual usable solar battery in 1954. Seems it worked -- we've seen photos of happy science nerds in sun glasses on the Labs lawn at Murray Hill, NJ.
