...Energy Flashes

Here are short articles on oil industry officials, solar energy, alternative source of power, L. John and Fry, C.J. Swet.

July/August 1974

OIL INDUSTRY OFFICIALS, mining spokesmen, heads of government agencies, consumer groups, environmentalists and others continue to fill the air go full of claims and counterclaims that it's difficult to get a fix on the real status of the world's "conventional" energy sources. To make matters worse, Joe Public increasingly seems to feel that the paper tiger nature of the recent energy "crisis" proves that there's really no problem at all. Not so! Look for steadily climbing electric bills and spot shortages of fuel oil and natural gas again during the coming winter. And beyond that? Nobody knows, but some smart money is already betting that a real energy crisis (part of the unpleasantness foreseen by Paul R. Ehrlich in this issue's Plowboy Interview) is lurking somewhere just over the horizon.

SOLAR ENERGY IS SUDDENLY "IN" , as dozens of huge corporations and government agencies thrash about in search of a replacement for fossil fuels. Many of the hastily conceived crash programs are wasteful and hardly worth the time and money going into them . . . but one notable exception seems to be "the first solar heating system to be installed in a high school in the United States". InterTechnology Corporation, Box 340, Warrenton, Virginia 22186 designed, fabricated and installed what a company spokesman calls "a completely automated, self-operated system which serves 100% of the space we were directed to heat! The collector is 126' X 26' . . . and has been operating at efficiencies from 53 to 63%." Perhaps most impressive of all, the entire assembly was started January 22, 1974 . . . and completed just 57 calendar days later!

ANOTHER SCHOOL GETS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF POWER! Environmental Energies, Inc. (see this column in MOTHER No. 27), has installed a windplant for a grade school in the Detroit, Michigan area. The unit is running and is supplying all the electricity used in one classroom and part of the "juice" consumed by a second. Al O'Shea, of EEI, is currently hard at work on a store that will handle alternative living products . . . and which will be lit, heated, cooled, etc., by sun, wind and other "soft technology" systems. For solar pool heaters, windplants, etc., in the Detroit area, contact Al O'Shea, Environmental Energies, Inc., 11350 Schaefer, Detroit, Michigan 48227.

L. JOHN FRY --the man who, for six years, ran a 1,000-head South African pig farm almost entirely on methane made from the hogs' droppings--will soon publish a definitive book about the anaerobic digestion process and its by-products. Fry (see the Plowboy Interview in MOTHER NO. 23) is a storehouse of information on the subject and methane experimenters in all parts of the world are sure to find his manual both interesting and informative. The book will sell for $12.00 a copy (ouch!) but is sure to be worth the price. Look for its release by no later than mid-August. MOTHER will review the handbook.

C. J. SWET , of the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University has designed quite an interesting apparatus he calls A Universal Solar Kitchen . Very simply, his "kitchen" has been calculated to efficiently collect the sun's energy, pipe the heat to a convenient point of use . . . and do it in a manner compatible with the existing ethnic and regional domestic practices of widely varying cultures. Swet figures that his unit can be constructed for less than $100. For more details, get Bulletin PB-213 023 from the National
Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22151. The booklet costs $3.00.