Renewable Energy - History

History

Prior to the development of coal in the mid 19th century, all energy used was renewable, with the primary sources being human labor, animal power in the form of oxen, mules, and horses, water power for mill power, wind for grinding grain, and firewood. A graph of energy use in the United States up until 1900 shows oil and natural gas with about the same importance in 1900 as wind and solar played in 2010.

By 1873, concerns of running out of coal prompted experiments with using solar energy. Development of solar engines continued until the outbreak of World War I. The eventual importance of solar energy, though, was recognized in a 1911 Scientific American article: "in the far distant future, natural fuels having been exhausted will remain as the only means of existence of the human race".

In the 1970s environmentalists promoted the development of alternative energy both as a replacement for the eventual depletion of oil, as well as for an escape from dependence on oil, and the first wind turbines appeared. Solar had always been used for heating and cooling, but solar panels were too costly to build solar farms until 1980. The theory of peak oil was published in 1956.

By 2008 renewable energy had ceased being an alternative, and more capacity of renewable energy was added than other sources in both the United States and in Europe.