I don't think there were any so if u guys could just come up with logical advantages during that time period that would be fine but if there are some just say so
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The advantages of solar power during the industrial revolution were pretty much the same as they are today - it's a clean, carbon-neutral source of power, and it comes for free. But the value placed on those advantages would have been less - environmentalism wasn't a big deal, we didn't have any idea about global warming, and other power sources like coal were also inexpensive.
There were also a number of disadvantages, some of which we still have, and some of which we've addressed. For one, we didn't have the technology to produce photovoltaic cells (i.e. solar panels) on anything like the scale required. That didn't happen until the mid 1950s. (Of course there are other things you can do, like use solar power to heat water to drive a steam turbine, which would have been possible). For another, solar power doesn't work at night, or when it's cloudy, and the amount of power is reduced at higher latitudes (such as in England and the northeastern US, which were at the heart of the industrial revolution). So you need storage capabilities and transmission capabilities, which again didn't exist at the scale required. A third problem is that the industrial revolution (well, the 1st industrial revolution, anyway) was very much a mechanical (as opposed to electrical) revolution. Electric motors weren't developed until the 1830s (at the end of the period identified as the industrial revolution), and weren't really practical until the 1880s (ushering in the 2nd industrial revolution). So, again, we're looking at a solar powered steam engine rather than a solar cell like we usually think of today.
Finally, there's the issue of energy density. Let's say you wanted to use solar power to boil water to drive a steam engine locomotive. A typical steam locomotive will use a firebox with a cross-sectional area of about 4 square meters, which would generate 7000 horsepower, or about 5 megawatts. How much area do you need to collect sunlight to get that same level of power?
There were also a number of disadvantages, some of which we still have, and some of which we've addressed. For one, we didn't have the technology to produce photovoltaic cells (i.e. solar panels) on anything like the scale required. That didn't happen until the mid 1950s. (Of course there are other things you can do, like use solar power to heat water to drive a steam turbine, which would have been possible). For another, solar power doesn't work at night, or when it's cloudy, and the amount of power is reduced at higher latitudes (such as in England and the northeastern US, which were at the heart of the industrial revolution). So you need storage capabilities and transmission capabilities, which again didn't exist at the scale required. A third problem is that the industrial revolution (well, the 1st industrial revolution, anyway) was very much a mechanical (as opposed to electrical) revolution. Electric motors weren't developed until the 1830s (at the end of the period identified as the industrial revolution), and weren't really practical until the 1880s (ushering in the 2nd industrial revolution). So, again, we're looking at a solar powered steam engine rather than a solar cell like we usually think of today.
Finally, there's the issue of energy density. Let's say you wanted to use solar power to boil water to drive a steam engine locomotive. A typical steam locomotive will use a firebox with a cross-sectional area of about 4 square meters, which would generate 7000 horsepower, or about 5 megawatts. How much area do you need to collect sunlight to get that same level of power?
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