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  • SOLAR ELECTRIC: Sunrise
Solar on the Line exhibition title graphic
Workers installing solar panels on a home in Englewood, Colorado, in 2012

SOLAR ELECTRIC: Sunrise

November 28, 2016 by Hal Wallace, Curator of the Electricity Collections, and Joyce Bedi, Lemelson Center

"So long as the sun shines, man will be able to develop power in abundance . . ." —Thomas Edison, 1896

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Solar energy is supplying an ever larger portion of America’s electricity. The Department of Energy estimated that solar panels represent nearly 40% of the nation’s new electrical generation in 2016. Innovations that make the power grid respond better to increased use of solar are being tested in communities around the world. Even the Smithsonian is choosing to “go solar,” installing panels on several museums around the National Mall.

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Photovoltaic panels installed at the Alamosa Solar Generating Project, Colorado, 2014

Photovoltaic panels at the Alamosa Solar Generating Project, Colorado, 2014. Courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory

  • Continue To About the Exhibition
  • Previous
  • Introduction
  • SOLAR THERMAL: Putting the Sun’s Heat to Work
  • SOLAR ELECTRIC: Photovoltaics
  • SOLAR ELECTRIC: A Million Solar Roofs
  • SOLAR ELECTRIC: Unplugged
  • SOLAR ELECTRIC: Sunrise
  • About the Exhibition

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Exhibition Featured in Solar Today from the American Solar Energy Society

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