Show Iiifiit "V t— Hit Harold Joomd Login Utah Sunday September 5 1976 Solar energy no longer dream By Edward K DeLoif wASHINGTON(UPl) riiores of a Vermont lake to die desert sands of New Mexico from Maryland to California Americans are beginning to tap the limitless power of die sun By the end of this year US energy officials say gleaming solar collector panels will provide heat — and in some cases cooling -f- or almost 1500 homes schools and commercial buddings across the -m nation One 'such house at Quechee Lake Vt degrees days that Operating costs are one-four- th Ito A $618 a year — onehalf that of traditional fuel systems Houses in less severe dimates do even better getting 85 per cent or more of their heat from the sun Solar manufacturers offer consumers everything from solar house plans and rooftop heat collector kits to backyard solar barbecue grills And despite the high costs involved solar cells like those on spacecraft are generating electricity for such earthbound devices as electric car battery chargers railroad crossing lights and cabin cruiser bie pumps IN BANGLADESH a aatioa devastated almost every year by cyclones floods or disease epidemics the family planning program is an attempt by man to coatrol population growth Here in Dhamral a mother with her young child sleeps on the floor while waiting her turn to be sterilised clink during a week-lon- g Bangladesh: world’s most overcrowded major nation By John Needham DHAMRAI Bangladesh (UPI) Golapi Rani Sarkar rose at 5 am saw to the feeding id her family and set out on the Journey to Dhamrai — three hours by boat and a hau-hou- r by car For the mother of five a slight woman in her 20’s and the victim of years of deficient diets and toil in the rice fields it was sterilization day “I can’t afford to have more children” she told an interpreter and interviewer as she waited her turn at the' sterilization fair run by the Bangladerii Association for Voluntary Sterilization “My husband told me to have the operation about four or five months back” She said bolding her youngest child aged 2 in her arms “I read about this and three (other women) in my village also told me about the operation" Bangladesh is the most overcrowded major nation on earth Only the city-stat- e of Singapore and the British Grown Colony of Hong Kong have greater population densities Bangladesh is three tfrnni more crowded than India and more than 20 times more crowded than the United States “No matter where you go in this country you’re never out of right of a village" says one resident “As soon as one disappears the next one has come into - t3 'e and Development Energy Administration meanwhile is developing an installation near Albuquerque NJL to test a total solar energy system By 1978 ERDA says it should induce large quantities of both heat and electricity In short tapping the energy of the sun is no longer a dream “Solar energy is a huge and nttaiiy inexhaustible simply of global energy that lable in a number tially useful forms" said Dr Lloyd llenrig ar Energy my body didn’t respond well and I want a permanent method” She and several other women interviewed said they opted for sterilization because they “can’t afford more children” A spokesman for the Bangladesh Association for Voluntary Sterilization said the nine doctors were expected to perform 50 operations daily for 10 days at the fair held in a cinder-bloc-k building 25 mil— north of the capital Dacca “The reason for this camp is the clinks are in towns” he said “We have to hold camps in the villages and reach the rural people” The sun is thermonuclear fire blazing 93 million miles from Earth Man's quest to harness that fire is ancient His success at doing so is in its in- fancy Early man used the sun to fire bricks and dry crops A primitive solar furnace helped Joseph Primely discover oxygen At a Paris exhibition in 1878 a reflector focused sunlight on a boiler to make steam and run a printing press By 1913 Egypt had electric plants Solar water heaters were common in Florida by the ed 1920s A symposium on solar house heating was held in 1950 Those however were random efforts coal oil gas -pFossil fuels redominated because they were widely available easy to transport easy to store and useful by night as wed as by day - Then the energy crisis brought skyrocketing prices and a dawning realization that fossd fuels are finite Sun power began to come of age "Solar energy for your home is here" proclaims a newly published book from the Federal Energy Admlnistrati help you individually and it c help the country arfkctively The FEA book "Buying Solar" designed to help the homeowner t whether to invest in solar energy B tnere are solid doUarfran¢s reasons for considering sun power “Until' 'recently it was Just not economical for a homeowner to install a solar unit when there were cheap sources of conventional energy around" the book says "But those days are gone forever and now solar Is becoming increasingly competitive with electricity and oU” In absolute terms the sun’s ability to replace other energy sources Is almost boundless Just two or three days’ worth of sunlight worldwide has the same energy value as all die fossil fuels man will ever bum FEA scientists say the solar energy striking Lake Erie in but one day equals America’s consumption for a full year Putting all that energy to work is another matter Much solar energy falls In uninhabited areas Sunlight in populated areas must be converted rate other more useful forms of the country is going to need" America’s energy Sinew consumption goes into heating homes and offlcofaifidings and only half that heat Is Ukeiy to came from the sun Seamans said solafenergy eventually may supply 12 to 19 per cent of UJ5 energy needs one-four- th There are four basic ways sunlight into useful energy sorbers active solar panels the electric cell and the solar furnace The first the simplest AD it takes Is a way m traa the sun's heat such as a glass curtains that can be wall opened 0 day to let heat in and closed by night to keep the warmty from escaping Passive systems although relatively inexpensive can result in rooms that are stifling in daylight — too chilly at night There are ways to solve the problem but at the cost of a view Steve Baer has A young inventor designed an elaborate solution in the hills near Albuquerque Nil A southfacing glass wall on his silvery house is backed by almost a hundred SSgukxi drums of water Hinged reflector panels swing down to concentrate sunlight on the drums by day storing it then close to seal in the heat radiated by the drums at night Baer’s wife calls the manual opening and dosing of the panels “a nice ritual" But for similar houses that he sells Bear has designed a way to seal the walls automatically at night Active solar panda are perhaps the best known solar energy system Each panel typically two or three feet wide ana six or eight feet long is a shallow box with a glass or plastic fruit and a back made of copper steel or aluminum The black-paintemetal back or absorber plate converts sunlight to heat Banks of solar panels are mounted on a south-facin- g roof or wan slanted at an angle that roughly equals tiie latitude of the house On a cloudless day even hi zero weather temperatures inside such panels ! can hit a with-insulate- d 1 d for dark nights and cloudy days Experts disagree on how much energy man can use A 1974 study predicted the sun could supply 16 per cent of the nation’s energy by the year 2000 The National Science Foundation in 1975 said it could be 4 per certby 1985 FEA plans call for solar power to replace a million barrels of oil a day by 1905 — about 2 per cent Dr Robert Seamans chief of the Energy Water or air circulates through the panels carrying the heat to storage and distribution equipment that usually is Research and Development located in the basement Huge water tanks Administration cautioned in an interview or tons of stones store heat for nighttime use in the typical system not to expect too much of the sun FEA experts say there should be one “Even if you had every home in the United States with solar energy it is not square foot of solar panel for each two and to four square feet of house space going to provide a large percentage of what one-ha- lf view” Eighty million people are Jammed into 55000 square miles If the present growth rate of three per cent per year continues there will be 290 million people in Bangladerii by the turn of the century — the equivalent of having every man woman and child now living in the United States crammed into Illinois If the government's family planning program works the population will have merely doubled by the year 2005 “For Bangladesh the problem is very acute” says Minister of Health Dr M Ibrahim who also heads a separate ministry created July 1 to deal with population control and family planning The military government has acted on the problem under heavy pressure from Western nations and agencies that have poured a staggering $4 billion into Bangladesh since it was created in the war The donors aftermath of the 1971 were worried that without a check on population growth more and more money would accomplish less and less Seated in his office with its red black and blue charts with symbols of peasants’ huts and graphs of population figures Ibrahim said he is using 12000 workers involved in past malaria and smallpox 'eradication programs to help in the family planning ld Indo-Paklsta- ni campaign ' He also has hired 6000 specialists who will fan out to “the grass-roo- ts level" and brief villagers about health nutrition immunization and birth control ' The UJS Agency for International Development helped voluntary agencies pay for pilot projects which have indicated that 20 to 30 per cent of fine g estimated 15 million couples of age will agree to use contraceptives At present only about three per cent of the population practices some form of family planning “Unless they can do something with population nothing else makes any sense" one Western official said “They have very little time" The average woman in Bangladesh gets married at about age 14 and has 62 children born live Two out of every five children dte before the age of 6 “As far as the family is concerned they see a child as another farm laborer" the Westerner said “They don’t care about educational problems because they don't educate the kids They don't care about medical pro Diems because they don't buy medicine The kids die It’s Allah’s will" AID has contracted with Population Services International to run what is for Bangladesh a Madison Avenue-- o tyie d program for family planning Advertisements on radio and in newspapers — in English and Bengali — tell the “Facts about Conform traceptives" in question-and-answBirth control pills and condoms are distributed in some 19000 retail outlets tea shops cigarette stalls and the like in villages of 5000 population and above — big villages by Bangladesh standards “What’s behind all this is trying to bring the price (of birth control) down and making it comparable to the price of a cup of tea” one ID official said So far the agency has put about 9900000 into the program and is willing to go to 95 million Theoretically after a man or woman buys the initial batch of pills or condoms — enough for two months — a “peddler on a bicycle” will cau on him or her with future supplies “Boise Cascade understands that even die closest families get too close for comfort So when they designed the Huntington home with this great-lookian attached ar garage the body plenty of room to breat ng 2-c- sg" ks ? er Unlike most government programs there are no forms to fill out or questions to znswer AID admits however that the lack of paperwork makes it difficult to learn if purchasers are really using the birth central devices and says it is “trying to work out an evaluation program" For the 100 or so women who came to the first day g sterilization fair at Dhamrai of the sterilization was the best form of birth control because it is permanent “I've wanted the operation since I had my third child” said Chancal Rain Dher who now has five children “I’ve been on the pill for the last year but week-lon- -- 4 A1 fr1 Iff1 exceeds FHAHUD standards So you don't have to sweat expensive heating bills either Go ahead and look up your nearest Boise Cascade Dealer soon Jt won’t cost you a thing Or fill out this coupon and send for a Boise Cascade brochure It’s free too’' I I j I Boise Cascade Homes PO Box 8358 Boise Idaho 83707 Please send me your free color brochure ge I I ! Name ed 1367 SCL FT 3 BEDROOMS IK BATHS child-bearin- high-powere- dining room and gracious living room for entertaining There’s even a big family room off the kitchen for evening powwows And an optional basement And speaking of options Boise Cascade Homes are loaded with them You can add everything from fireto enhance your places to sun-dechome And on the subject of choice Boise Cascade has 29 other floor plans and 20 different exteriors for you to choose from In sizes ranging from 800 to 1633 square feet And all have one thing in common theyi Boise Cascade quality construction Boise Cascade builds homes that last They’re all constructed with first-rat- e materials They use kiln-drilumber for example Why? Because it revents the wood from warping or split-n- g S later on like green wood does So your home holds its shape and its value And they put in copper plumbing so sediment won t build up ana cost you a lot in plumbing bills Ana insulation that There’s three bedrooms in the Huntington for those times when you all need your privacy And then when you're ready to be sociable there's a separate I I Address State City Zip Homes (if) Boise Cascade mMi Don't in anything Im LHJIt "This is a home that understands families There’s room to be together and there's room to be apart! |