In 1861 Auguste Mouchet a 19th century French inventor made the earliest known solar-powered engine converting solar energy into mechanical steam power.

Mouchot was born in Semur-en-Auxois, France in 1821 and had a degree in Mathematics and was a Bachelor of Physical Sciences he taught mathematics in the secondary schools of Lycée de Tours between 1864 and 1871 and It was during this period that he undertook research into solar energy, which led eventually to his obtaining government funding for full time research.

Believing that the coal would eventually run out was drawn to the idea of finding new alternative energy sources. In 1860 he began exploring solar cooking, drawing on the work of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Claude Pouillet. He experimented with a water-filled cauldron enclosed in glass, which would be exposed to the heat of the sun until the water boiled; the steam that was produced provided power for a small steam engine.

Solar Generator 1878

In August 1866, he had developed the first parabolic solar collector and by 1869 he had built the largest solar steam engine and it was displayed in Paris until the city fell under siege during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, and was not found after the siege ended.

In September 1872, Mouchot installed an experimental solar generator at the Tours library and in December of the same year he presented to the Academy a device he claimed would, in optimal sunshine, provide a steam flow of 140 liters per minute.

In 1878, he displayed his engine at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, and won a Gold Medal in Class 54 for his works, most notably the production of ice using concentrated solar heat.

The French government at the time assessed that solar energy was uneconomical, deeming Mouchot’s research no longer important and ending his funding.

“One must not believe, despite the silence of modern writings, that the idea of using solar heat for mechanical operations is recent. On the contrary, one must recognize that this idea is very ancient and its slow development across the centuries it has given birth to various curious devices.” — Augustin Bernard Mouchot, at the Universal Exposition, Paris, France (1878).

“Eventually industry will no longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion… Coal will undoubtedly be used up. What will industry do then?” — Augustin Bernard Mouchot, after demonstrating an early industrial application of solar thermal energy (1880).

He died in 1912 in Paris.

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