Report Of Domestic Policy Review On Solar Energy Held At Illinois Institute Of Technology Chicago Illinois June 26 1978

Author : The Franklin Institute Research Laboratories
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Great Adventure written by The Franklin Institute Research Laboratories and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Energy, on July13, 1978, conducted the last in its series of Domestic Policy Review (DPR) public meetings on solar energy. DOE Secretary James R. Schlesinger made the opening statement at the Washington, D.C., event. In keynoting this final DPR/Solar public meeting, Secretary Schlesinger said: "This public meeting represents another step in a process that started last January when the Department gave its full support to Sun Day. "That process will pass a major milestone in September, when recommendations will be submitted to the President - on a national strategy to develop fully the great potential of solar energy. Those steps should be reflected in the 1980 budget. It has been for us an exciting process. There is, I think, frequently too much gloom in this country regarding a future in which we can become less dependent. We are forced to become less dependent upon fossil fuels as the availability of those fuels, which have powered our economy and the growth of our standard of living, begins to diminish relative to demands. "There will be a great adventure for this country as we move into the next century and turn increasingly to renewable sources of energy as a replacement for fossil fuels. "That great adventure will only be resolved within our system of Government if there is full cooperation between the general public and the Government. Solar energy will not be a success without major Government efforts, but it will also not be a success in the absence of a spirit in the land - an innovating spirit to take advantage of what will be novel techniques unfamiliar to most of us but, increasingly, techniques upon which we will have to rely. "Solar energy will indeed have to be cost-effective at this juncture, and the cost effectiveness is limited, by and large, to certain household uses. We would hope that solar energy will increasingly be cost-effective for process heat in industry. I believe that is likely to be the first great breakthrough in terms of solar energy's major contribution to our national energy budget. The solar contribution in the household sector alone, while significant, will never resolve our national energy problems. "The energy problem, of course, is an interrelated whole. Solar energy and its success depends upon our policies in other energy areas as well. That is what lies behind the various recommendations in the National Energy Plan. In order to make solar energy cost-effective there will have to be realistic pricing of the present alternatives to solar energy, notably oil and gas pricing, so that the economic considerations underlying the introduction of solar energy will not be unfairly biased against this new energy form. "We have proposed, and they are long overdue, certain adjustments in tax credits. Taxes are designed to raise the price of those fuels, oil and natural gas in particular, for which we see limited supplies in the future. To provide those financial incentives we must move away from what is an excessive dependency upon sources of supply which inevitably cannot sustain their present role in our energy economy. "In addition, we have suggested tax credits to encourage the further use of solar equipment in the household and in the factory. I doubt, at least in the latter case, that we have gone far enough. If we are to effectively use solar energy for process heat we must overcome the institutional barriers represented by the existing tax code and corporate budgets so that we can make greater use of this particular form of energy. "As I indicated earlier, today is one of the final steps in a process that started in early January. It reached perhaps its apogee on Sun Day, when the President announced the formation of a Cabinet -level Domestic Policy Review for Solar Energy. "Shortly after Sun Day we established a DPR staff for that review -a staff representing 29 Federal agencies. On June 12th,the first of 11 public meetings across the country was held. Since then, more than 3,000 people have provided oral or written comments, and some 10,000 people have attended these hearings.