Word: solarized
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According to Jhirad, solar energy could provide 100 per cent of U.S. energy needs within 25 years. His position received support from a recent report of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, which concluded that electricity from one-site solar systems could be cost-competitive with that from utilities "within ten to 15 years...
Furthermore, the U.S. Office of Energy Development (OED) has stated that solar water heating is already cost-competitive with electric water heating. However, as stressed by the President's Council on Environmental Quality in a report issued earlier this month, the development of a solar-based economy depends on a national commitment "to that goal and to serious energy conservation...
Congress has begun to show willingness to back solar development projects. Eight solar energy bills were introduced this year, including proposals for low-interest equipment loans, start-up assistance for small solar firms, and requirements that federal facilities use the maximum amount of solar power. Due to a lack of support from either OED or President Carter, however, the total federal solar energy budget is seven times less than that granted for nuclear power development...
...Reps. Robert Drinan (D-Mass.) and Richard Ottinger (D-N.Y.) have pointed out, OED officials are principally former executives of nuclear and defense industries who, along with OED head James Schlesinger, continue to promote non-renewable fossil fuel and nuclear energy development while undermining the solar effort. In fields such as solar heating and cooling, where the technology has already been developed at reasonable cost, the lack of OED support is not crucial. For rapid solar electric development, however, a change in OED is vital...
...most reasonable source of solar electric power is the photovoltaic cell of the type used in satellites and light meters. The cost of power from these cells is currently high--about $11 per watt, because the volume of business is currently low--750 kilowatts of capacity produced per year. Yet 1977 reports of the United Nations and the Federal Energy Administration show that electric power from photovoltaic cells would be cheaper than that from nuclear plants if they received a total investment of only $1 billion. That is still less than the cost of a single large nuclear power plant...