Page 24 - ISES SWC50

3. OVERVIEW OF THE SUMMARIES

The following chapters comprise the sections as described below.

3.1 ISES
The International Solar Energy Society (ISES) was the first membership-based organisation to focus on the
advancement of solar energy. Although its roots were in the scientific community from the 1950’s to the early
80’s, anyone with an interest in solar energy joined ISES or one of its many national sections around the world.
This included researchers, scientists, those in industry and even the general public. ISES was where one found
out what was happening in the world of solar energy, and in particular, research and new developments. If you
look at those involved in the 50’s and 60’s, many were involved in solar thermal and in particular the growing
solar hot water market. Solar architecture and the building sector were very well represented, along with
those involved with resource assessment and wind power. Hence the interest in the early conferences in the
USA, as well as the first ISES Solar world congress in 1970 which this booklet is celebrating.

In the 60’s, and in particular with the oil crisis of the 70’s, there was a growth in the interest of a new solar
product known as photovoltaics (PV). This led to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
creating a PV group and holding conferences. During the 80’s and 90’s, many more organisations either
formed or started to take an interest in solar energy. However, some of these had their seeds planted by ISES,
including Solar Cities and many such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) who work closely with ISES.
With the solar industry growing, so too did the number of solar industry associations around the world. By
the 1990’s, those interested in solar energy had many groups where they could obtain their information and/
or become members.

The forefathers of ISES, and everyone who has been involved over the years, should be very proud of what
has been achieved today. Solar is (or has become) a mainstream industry. Meanwhile, ISES still plays a very
active part providing the opportunity for researchers and scientists to demonstrate new advancements in
‘Solar Energy’, the official journal of ISES, and the International Solar World Congresses. The organisation
itself also plays an active role in being members and partners in a number of organisations.

In 2005 ISES published a two-volume book titled ‘The Fifty-Year History of the International Solar Energy Society
and its National Sections’. These two volumes provide a very detailed history of ISES from the early 1950s to 2005.
The book contains the following two chapters:

• Volume 1 Chapter 1 -The Internal Solar Energy Society: The First 25 Years, 1955 to 1980 (64 pages) by
John A. Duffie and Harry Z. Tabor.
• Volume 1 Chapter 2- The Internal Solar Energy Society: The Second 25 Years, 1981 to 2005 (254 pages)
by David R Mills.

These highlights of ISES provide a summary of events documented in the above two chapters, along with key
events of the last 15 years (2005 to 2020), as recorded in the Society’s own publications ‘SunWorld’ and the
ISES Europe’s ‘Sun at Work in Europe’.

3.2 Photovoltaics (PV)
The PV industry has been one of the fastest growing industries over the last 10 years. At the turn of the
century, the cumulative PV installed capacity was approximately 700MW. In comparison, the cumulative
installed capacity in 2018 was approximately 500GW.

The highlights include the discovery of the photovoltaic effect in the 1880’s, and other discoveries until
development of the modern silicon cell at Bell laboratories in 1954. From there it goes through the start of a new
industry, with PV used on satellites before being brought down to earth for various early off grid applications. The
highlights also include significant events in the “childhood and adolescence years of terrestrial photovoltaics”
from the 1960s to 2000.

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