Abstract

In 1953, Giorgio Nebbia (1926–2019) wrote to Maria Telkes (1900–1995), asking her for information about the solar distillation of water. After this, an interchange of papers and letters was generated, including those discussing the preparation of the first international congress on solar energy, which took place in 1955. The archives of Luigi Michelleti Foundation in Brescia, Italy, holds correspondence between Nebbia and Telkes which demonstrate that, in the 1950s, solar energy was again considered as an alternative source of energy, after several decades of being forgotten. The 1955 congress represented an attempt to launch this kind of energy resource, although it seemed that interest would be centred on nuclear energy and fossil fuel energy. Nevertheless, a relevant network of solar energy researchers around the world developed highly interesting work. In this paper, we aim to discuss an example of the origin of the International Network of Solar Research through the Nebbia-Telkes correspondence, the development of expertise, and circulation of knowledge in the middle of the twentieth century.