Word: solarized
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That would be a start in the right direction, as would the proposal that President Carter announced last week to make more money available for development of solar energy. The nation does need to push production of alternate forms of energy, to reduce its debilitating dependence on unpredictable and outrageously priced oil supplies from OPEC. But neither solar power nor synthetic fuels will help much to shorten gasoline lines, or to keep homes warm, for years to come...
There are nine promising alternatives. Some have potential everywhere, and others are limited by the constraints of geography, cost or technology. They range from oil shale and tar sands, which have the supreme advantage of providing petroleum itself, to solar power, wind, waves and other exotic forms, which theoretically can provide huge amounts of electricity but no oil. A situation report on each...
...Solar. The sun's output of energy is enormous, and environmentalists regard it as the most pleasing energy alternative. But solar technology is in its infancy, and existing methods of drawing heat and electricity from the sun are inefficient and expensive. Today solar contributes less than 1% of the nation's needs...
...most common solar devices, accounting for 95% of sales, are the flat, boxlike, conventional thermal units that sit on rooftops. These use the sun's rays to heat water, which in turn heats home water systems. A basic series of units for a one-family home costs about $2,000 and saves only about $40 a year in fuel bills. The promising new frontier is photovoltaics, the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity by using silicon-crystal panels. Though the price of photovoltaic cells has been cut in half since 1975, the cost is still $9 per watt,*equal...
Large-scale commercial applications of solar power are also being examined, including one far-out idea to send up a solar satellite that could beam energy to earth in the form of microwaves. At Sandia Labs, in New Mexico, the DOE is testing components for future solar-power tower systems. Large arrays of computer-directed mirrors, or heliostats, reflect and concentrate the sunlight on a tower containing a steam boiler linked to an electricity-producing turbine. This October, Southern California Edison Co. will start building the nation's first such device linked to a power grid. Located in Daggett...