During the mid 20th century, exploitation of vast fossil fuel reserves radically lowered the cost of energy. While people enjoyed affordable electricity prices, it largely removed the motivation for business and home owners to think about efficiency.
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Buildings leaked like a sieve because it was cheaper to simply turn the air conditioner up. The legacy of those buildings remains with us today.
It also made a person like Maria Telkes something of a maverick. In 1937, when she started at MIT, solar research was considered a fringe activity. Yet she made a name for herself, becoming known as The Sun Queen.
Her early work was modest in scope, beginning with her solar-powered device to distil fresh water. Sunlight heated a container, while a funnel-shaped cover collected condensation.
It could be used in remote places without access to clean water. Sailors stranded in lifeboats used it to collect fresh water.
She then teamed up with architect Eleanor Raymond to design the Dover Sun House.
During the day it captured the sun's heat by melting sodium sulphate. At night, that heat could be released to keep the house comfortable without the need for electricity, gas or oil heating.
Unfortunately it failed after a couple of years and had to be removed. Still, the concept was there and today comparable systems are used to store energy.
Even though she faced opposition, Telkes persisted with the idea, and went on to apply the ideas in a variety of other settings.
Then, in 1969, she began studying photovoltaic cells, which at that time were a primitive technology that many thought would never become mainstream.
Her interest in solar houses continued with involvement in a design that could generate both heat and electricity.
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Born on December 12, 1900, in Budapest, Telkes described her parents as "tolerant". One imagines that they must've been, because she described how they were "amused" when one of her experiments ... went bang.
It seems she was already following the proud tradition of budding chemists cooking energetic combinations in the lab.
At age 11, her interest in chemistry was sparked (perhaps literally) by a simple school experiment that involved melting sulphur.
Later, she read a book that explained that the sun is directly overhead in the tropics and could be a source of energy. She read that the United States was experimenting with solar energy, which inspired her to move there after she'd finished her degree.
Looking back on her life some years later, she reflected, "It is the things supposed to be impossible that interest me. I like to do things they say cannot be done."
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