HARNESSING THE SUN: The Story of Solar Energy

A nuts-and-bolts survey of solar energy research from the tinkerers and dreamers spanning hundreds of years to today's working solar cookers, furnaces, and water heaters. ""Enough technology already exists to begin using sunshine to heat and cool homes and buildings,"" and though the economic obstacles to solar electricity are greater, solar cells are already used extensively in space and ""there must be a better way"" than the present wasteful process of growing artificial silicone crystals. Proposals for the future, many ""obviously still in the visionary stage,"" include solar farms, satellite power stations, ""ocean-thermal-difference"" plants, windmills, bioconversion, and a solar hydrogen generator which would solve the central problem of storing transportable energy to use where and when the sun's not shining. Utilitarian.