Infographic – The history of solar energy, going back to 4,000 B.C.

Harvesting the power of the sun has been a human endeavor since the beginning of civilization.

After all, the sun puts out 3.8 x 10^26 watts of power, and NASA scientists estimate that even capturing 0.0001% of what hits the earth would be enough to service all of our current energy needs.

Today, we’re obviously not there – but we’re making substantial progress. Solar cells are cheaper than ever before, and solar is finally getting queued up as a part of the future energy supply mix.

THE HISTORY OF SOLAR ENERGY

Today’s infographic comes from SolarTech, and it details the history of solar energy from all the way back to 4,000 B.C.

While solar only makes up a tiny portion of the overall energy mix today, there’s no doubt that future skylines will be dotted with many more photovoltaic panels.

The EIA pegs solar’s growth at a CAGR of 39% between 2013-2017 in the United States.