<P> Solar thermal technologies can be used for water heating, space heating, space cooling and process heat generation . </P> <P> In 1897, Frank Shuman, a U.S. inventor, engineer and solar energy pioneer, built a small demonstration solar engine that worked by reflecting solar energy onto square boxes filled with ether, which has a lower boiling point than water, and were fitted internally with black pipes which in turn powered a steam engine . In 1908 Shuman formed the Sun Power Company with the intent of building larger solar power plants . He, along with his technical advisor A.S.E. Ackermann and British physicist Sir Charles Vernon Boys, developed an improved system using mirrors to reflect solar energy upon collector boxes, increasing heating capacity to the extent that water could now be used instead of ether . Shuman then constructed a full - scale steam engine powered by low - pressure water, enabling him to patent the entire solar engine system by 1912 . </P> <P> Shuman built the world's first solar thermal power station in Maadi, Egypt, between 1912 and 1913 . His plant used parabolic troughs to power a 45--52 kilowatts (60--70 hp) engine that pumped more than 22,000 litres (4,800 imp gal; 5,800 US gal) of water per minute from the Nile River to adjacent cotton fields . Although the outbreak of World War I and the discovery of cheap oil in the 1930s discouraged the advancement of solar energy, Shuman's vision and basic design were resurrected in the 1970s with a new wave of interest in solar thermal energy . In 1916 Shuman was quoted in the media advocating solar energy's utilization, saying: </P> <P> We have proved the commercial profit of sun power in the tropics and have more particularly proved that after our stores of oil and coal are exhausted the human race can receive unlimited power from the rays of the sun . </P>

What is the history of the development of the solar energy