SOLAR ENERGY: The Awakening Science

by Daniel Behrman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1976

A chatty, idiosyncratic book on solar energy? Yes. Along with meaty interviews, good photographs, and equipment descriptions come poetic journal entries, asides on fast food, cars, English pubs, childhood or college nostalgia. But once you get past the coynesses, the Behrmans (he the interviewer, she the photographer) have much to report. They saw the principal workers in a diverse science which may hold solutions to the world's energy problems. Some research is geared to individual house roof or wall solar collectors for use in heating or cooling. Some is geared to harnessing sunshine to make electricity (solar cells, for example). Some visionaries plan major land, sea, or air installations using banks of collectors, windpower, solar ""rugs"" 50,000 feet up or concrete towers in the sea that would utilize the temperature gradients between surface and deeper waters to generate power. The technology ranges from the proven and practical to the glorious and hyperbolic. Trying to touch all world bases at this stage of a developing ununified science is not easy, and the Behrmans, for all their self-consciousness, can be complimented for introducing the general reader to the cast of characters and perhaps to an impression of what future life may be like.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION