Fun Facts

• The first solar furnace was built in France in 1714
• In 1878 in France a dish shaped mirror was used to focus solar heat onto a boiler, which produced steam to drive a printing press
• Solar collectors take up a lot of land
• Vacuum tube collectors have tubes that absorb the Sun's radiation and heat water that flows through another pipe
• A vacuum collector works better than a solar panel, producing temperatures up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit