And pluck till time and times are done... The golden apples of the sun.
Long before William Butler Yeats wrote these words, scientists dreamed of harnessing and storing the awesome energy of the sun. For Donald Hyde, a Stow, Mass., manufacturer, and thousands of other Americans, those dreams are becoming a reality. The sun provides most of the heat for Hyde's modern cedar-walled house, keeping its temperature at a comfortable 68° to 70° F. during even the coldest days of a New England winter. Solar energy also warms the water in Hyde's 16-ft. by 30-ft., kidney-shaped swimming pool. Putting the sun to work saves Hyde money on his fuel bills. His prototype solar system meets most of the house's space and hot-water heating needs, and cuts his energy bills by about 75%.
No More Ifs. Houses like Hyde's, their sharply pitched roofs covered by glassy-looking solar collectors, are still uncommon but may soon be familiar sights across the nation. On lots from Maine to California, in downtowns as well as rural areas, architects are erecting houses and office buildings designed to capture the sun's radiation for heating purposes. Schools in increasing numbers are also using solar energy to keep classrooms comfortable. The Government is seriously studying ways of using sunshine to generate electricity for utility customers. Though the current high costs of capturing the sun's energy make it uncompetitive with more conventional fuels, there is no doubt that solar energy is slowly coming of age. "There are no ifs involved with solar energy any more," says Bradley University Professor Y.B. Safdari, who has built a solar house in Eureka, Ill. "It's merely a question of when."
As recently as a decade ago, the whole idea of directly tapping solar energy was considered by many to be little more than a form of permissible idiocy, a harmless pursuit for a handful of engineers and tinkerers. Only six years ago, the Federal Government budgeted a mere $1 million for solar-energy research; this year the sum will be almost $180 million.
Abundant Energy. The growing popularity—and respectability—of solar-energy systems stems in part from the price of oil, which has quadrupled during the past five years, and is likely to climb still higher after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in December. The prices of natural gas and coal have also increased, and reserves of all three fuels have dwindled, forcing economists to look ahead to the day when they might be unavailable at almost any price. "We eventually will have very little left but solar energy," says Erich Farber of the University of Florida at Gainesville. "Therefore we must learn to convert solar energy into every kind of energy we use in our daily lives." Nuclear-power proponents would disagree with Farber's philosophy, but concerns over safety and rising costs have slowed the rush toward fission power. Nuclear fusion plants, which promise virtually unlimited power, are probably decades away from becoming a reality.