Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

Tells the entire story of humankind’s use of solar energy, reaching all the way back 6,000 years to stone age China and then bringing the story all the way up to now. The only book in existence that attempts to tell the entire story of humankind’s more than 6,000 year use of solar energy. Most people think of solar power as being a 20th century invention. Few know that the first photovoltaic cells joined the grid on a New York City rooftop in 1881; or that engineers in France used solar power to run steam engines in 1860s; or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a solar engine with a massive 33-1/2 foot mirrored dish to irrigate 300 acres of trees by pumping 1,400 gallons of water every minute from a reservoir using nothing but the power of the sun. And these are just a few of the incredible stories that will be told in the book. Author John Perlin began telling this story in 1980 with the first edition of their book A Golden Thread, which then went back 2,500 years and covered up through the late 70s. The book sold 55,000 copies and received rave reviews, with the reviewer for The Los Angeles Times calling it a “humbling book” and a “rich mine of information.” The New York Times called it “A clear and evocative account of the 2,500-year history of a technology – solar energy – that many people thought was a purely 20th century development” and The Washington Post gave the book an even stronger review calling it a “careful, thoughtful” book that touches on “an awesome range of solar uses and issues.” Lester Brown, Founder of the Worldwatch institute has said, “A Golden Thread has become a classic” and a contributor to the popular energy blog “The Oil Drum” wrote that it is “like The Prize but from a solar perspective.”