William Adams: The Bombay bureaucrat whose solar energy vision was crushed by colonial conservatism

Summary

This article tells the story of William Adams, a British bureaucrat in colonial Bombay who, in the 1870s, became a passionate advocate for solar energy. Inspired by earlier solar inventions by Augustin Mouchot, Adams designed and built a large parabolic solar reflector in Bombay that successfully generated steam power. Despite proving the technology's viability, his vision for a solar-powered future was thwarted by colonial conservatism, lack of funding, and institutional resistance from British authorities who favored coal. The article highlights Adams as an unsung hero whose forward-thinking solar ambitions were ahead of their time and suppressed by the entrenched interests of the fossil fuel era.