The true crime history of solar energy

0:00 I was in the middle of editing this video.

0:02 I was looking for some of the original newspaper articles.

0:04 I realized this story goes so much deeper and so much weirder.

0:11 September 21st is the solar equinox,

0:14 a time when the sun is directly shining on the equator.

0:18 It's also Sunday, a national day of action to raise awareness about

0:21 harnessing solar energy with hundreds of events

0:24 and demonstrations happening across the country.

0:26 Ever since it coalesed into existence, more than 4.6 6 billion years ago.

0:31 Our one and only star remains the most

0:33 powerful force in the entire solar system.

0:36 The energy it emits has been responsible for supporting life on Earth as soon

0:40 as bacteria figured out how to eat sunlight

0:42 and burp out oxygen 2.4 billion years ago.

0:45 Woripped by cultures around the world

0:47 for as long as human history has been recorded,

0:50 our special star has been given many different names.

0:53 And the Wikipedia page for solar deity is quite long.

0:57 It makes sense.

0:57 Life on Earth wouldn't exist without it.

0:59 And it has taken thousands of years for us

1:02 to try and figure out what exactly it is.

1:04 It inspires awe and wonder and in my case, terror.

1:08 Because I have the complexion of a bowl

1:10 of mashed potatoes and burn like a vampire.

1:13 Advancements in astronomical science have allowed people to take

1:16 advantage of the sun in increasingly significant ways.

1:20 But are we really harnessing its full potential?

1:22 First of all, it was news to me that solar

1:24 flares can be so powerful that they change Earth's electromagnetic field,

1:29 disrupting satellites and power grids.

1:32 The modern-day solar power movement starts in 1839.

1:35 Teenager Edmund Beckerel was messing around in his dad's

1:39 physics lab and discovered the photovoltaic effect.

1:42 It's basically how to produce an electrical

1:43 current by exposing certain materials to sunlight.

1:46 Another highlight came in 1883 when inventor Charles Fritz showed off

1:50 a solar panel made of selenium and gold capable of 1% energy conversion.

1:55 Good job, Charles.

1:56 The most fascinating part of this story doesn't happen until 1909

2:00 when inventor George Cove debuted his sunpowered design on a New

2:04 York City rooftop and was featured prominently in Modern Electrics

2:08 magazine and otherwise received a great amount of media attention.

2:12 Maybe we'd be further along in the field of solar tech.

2:15 But Cove was allegedly abducted a few months after his press premiere,

2:19 supposedly by members of a rival fossil fuel company who threatened

2:23 his life unless he stopped inventing stuff and closed up shop.

2:26 The cops didn't take him seriously because they

2:28 assumed that this was some sort of publicity stunt.

2:31 Okay, cut.

2:32 I was in the middle of editing this part of the video.

2:34 I was looking for some of the original newspaper articles.

2:37 I realized this story goes so much deeper and so much weirder.

2:41 It was sometime in 1910 that Cove wrote this letter saying that he

2:45 was kidnapped by quote a number of capitalists and then dropped out of sight.

2:50 Modern-day defenders have painted Cove in his novel inventions

2:54 as sort of this victim of fossil fuel company greed,

2:56 lamented this major setback and then ended the story there.

3:00 But that is not exactly what happened.

3:02 Actually, the police did have a lot

3:04 of reason to believe that this was for publicity,

3:07 and it's because he'd already been under surveillance

3:10 by the post office authorities for quite a while.

3:12 So, you might think that it's a little

3:14 weird for the post office to get involved.

3:16 Most local law enforcement has really limited budgets and resources.

3:19 And when it's a larger crime and goes across state lines,

3:22 you need to get the federal authorities involved.

3:25 Enter the post office authority.

3:27 The post office inspection authorities have existed

3:30 since 1775 and they do not mess around.

3:33 Duspace is the crown jewel of the law enforcement system.

3:37 So you might have heard of this thing called wire fraud and that's

3:39 when crime is committed through one

3:41 or multiple communications networks like the radio,

3:44 internet, or through phone calls which

3:47 in 1910 was still a pretty new technology.

3:50 When something starts as a fishy phone call,

3:52 it will often make the leap into written correspondence,

3:55 which inevitably goes through the mail.

3:57 Cove's inventions weren't nearly as powerful

3:59 or efficient as he claimed them to be.

4:02 He and his business partner, Elmer Ellsworth Burlingham, incredible name,

4:06 been going around and telling people that their Sunshine Bottling Company

4:10 was expanding so rapidly it had a valuation of $5 million.

4:14 Today, that's like $165 million.

4:17 Eventually, the two of them were ratted out by a former employee

4:20 who tipped off these authorities that they had been running concealed wires

4:24 from their solar panels to the Edison electric lines next door and then

4:28 claiming the inflated data as a product of their design and invention.

4:32 Cove was arrested, held on a $2,500 bond, which is more than $82,000 today.

4:38 Later, he was convicted and spent a year in prison.

4:40 His business never recovered, but now I think we know why.

4:43 Oh, by the way, did you notice

4:44 this beautiful painting that's for sale at emilygrassley.com?

4:47 Okay, back to the script.

4:48 Then the next real breakthrough didn't happen for 40 years.

4:51 Scientists at the telephone company Bell Labs discovered

4:54 that silicon is a better conductor than selenium.

4:57 In 1954, they held a press conference featuring a solar cell strong

5:01 enough to run a 21-in ferris wheel and transmit a radio program.

5:05 Bell Lab's ultimate goal was to use

5:07 these to power telephone systems in rural areas.

5:10 Around then they could convert around 6% energy which wasn't great

5:14 but was better than the 1 to 2% that Cove had developed.

5:18 Today's solar cells have an average output of 15 to 20%.

5:21 But in 2022 a team in Germany reported

5:24 a new world record at 32 1.5% energy conversion.

5:28 Fact checker Grassly back at it again.

5:31 Turns out that is an old record.

5:33 A new one was set in April of this year

5:35 by Longi with a solar cell that can convert nearly 35% energy.

5:41 That's bonkers.

5:42 In the United States last year,

5:43 more than 80% of new electricity capacity came from solar technology.

5:48 Seems to me like the biggest things holding this back

5:50 is the fact that solar panels are still kind of ugly.

5:54 But for today, let's set aside the roadblocks and take time to celebrate

5:58 the incredible power of solar energy and where

6:00 we are in this timeline of innovation,

6:02 perpetuating a great tradition of human curiosity.

6:12 [Music] It still has brains on it.