LARGE CORPORATIONS MAY SOON OWN THE SUN. A recent article in People & Energy ($7.50/yr. from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1757 'S' St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009) points out that the majority of solar heating patents issued since 1960 - -as well as $8.7 million of the nearly $10 million in government solar energy contracts awarded in 1974 - went to large corporations. Authors James Sullivan and Patricia Austin suggest that if current trends continue, "it seems almost a certainty that the nation's corporate giants will secure a virtual monopoly on the development, distribution, and pricing of solar energy systems".
NATURAL POWER, INC., WANTS TO PROVIDE RELIABLE WIND ANALYSIS INSTRUMENTATION to individuals and/or firms seeking to perform their own site studies prior to installing wind chargers. "We hope we can encourage the use of wind energy conversion systems by taking the guesswork out of site analysis," says company president Richard Katzenberg. To that end, Natural Power will sell or rent recording anemometers to interested parties. For more info, write Natural Power, Inc., New Boston, N.H. 03070 ... and enclose at least 50 cents to cover expenses.
SOLAR POWER SLATED FOR DISNEY WORLD. The Energy Research and Development Administration has announced it will give the Magic Kingdom $326,000 in grant money to finance the installation of a solar heating/cooling system for 6,000 square feet of office space at Disney World's electric generating station. If successful, the solar prototype system (to be completed in 1977) will be expanded to one or two pavilions in the amusement park's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
THE RISING COST OF COAL AND THE HIGH PRICE OF POLLUTION CONTROL DEVICES have forced Georgia's Crisp County Power Commission to start burning peanut hulls at their Warwick, Georgia electrical power station. The hulls cost only two to six dollars per ton (as compared to $25 or $30 per ton of coal) and reportedly produce less pollution than the fuel they replace. Conversion of the CCPC plant from coal to peanuts is expected to cost the county $2 million, which will be repaid in savings after 15 years.
A NUKE POWER PLANT ACCIDENT COULD CAUSE TWO TO TEN TIMES MORE CASUALTIES than previously estimated, according to a new study by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA study - which labels the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's $3 million Rasmussen Report on nuclear safety "highly uncertain and premature" - states that 66,000 to 330,000 cancer deaths could occur in the wake of a nuclear mishap. This is substantially more than the estimate of 33,000 cancer deaths given in the Rasmussen findings.
HAVE DEATHS ALREADY OCCURRED INSIDE NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS? The answer is contained in Denis Hayes' Nuclear Power: The Fifth Horseman, sixth and latest in a series of papers published by the Worldwatch Institute. Denis discusses reactor safety, nuclear economics, terrorism, weapons proliferation, and five other topics in stunning detail in this 68-page tract, available from Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org), 1776 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
CHICAGO RESIDENTS WILL USE A COMBINATION OF NATURAL GAS AND BIO-GAS to heat their homes in about a year. Calorific Recovery Anaerobic Process (CRAP) of Hooker, Oklahoma will use up to 875,000 pounds of manure (obtained from nearby cattle feedlots) per day to generate the daily 3.5 million cubic feet of methane it has agreed to sell the Peoples Gas system (which serves Chicago) in 1977. CRAP and Peoples are currently involved in price negotiations.
WHETHER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR JACOBS OR WINCHARGER REPLACEMENT BLADES, inverters, batteries, towers, or a complete wind generator system, there's a good chance that Aero-Power has what you need. The folks at Aero-Power have been involved in the construction, testing, and marketing of windplant components for over five years and specialize in the manufacture of custom-designed blades (backed by a one-year guarantee). You'll want to read about their wares in the latest Aero-Power catalog, $1.00 from 432 Natoma St., San Francisco, Calif. 94103.
HYDROGEN "CASSETTES" PROVIDE POWER FOR AUTOMOBILES in tests now being conducted by Billings Energy Research Corporation of Provo, Utah. The cassettes - which store hydrogen compactly without the need for pressurization or refrigeration - are filled with magnesium hydride (made by combining hydrogen gas with magnesium powder). As hydrogen is exhausted from cartridges, pure magnesium is left behind and can be recycled to form more hydride. The cassette development comes on the heels of recent hydride work done by scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. New York.
THE FOLKS AT LIVING SYSTEMS OF WINTERS, CALIFORNIA - authors of the landmark solar ordinance recently adopted by the city of Davis, California (see Energy Flashes, MOTHER NO. 39)-will gladly send copies of the Davis statute to MOTHER's readers for $2.50 each, postpaid. In case you're interested in the thinking that went into the solar ordinance, it's all laid out in A Strategy for Energy Conservation, $5.30 ppd. Send your remittance to: Living Systems, Rt. 1, Box 170, Winters, Calif. 95694.
FROM THE SAME MAN WHO BROUGHT US SOLAR HEATED BUILDINGS: A BRIEF SURVEY comes an Informal Directory of the Organizations and People Involved in the Solar Heating of Buildings. Governmental agencies, professional societies, foundations, solar engineers, inventors, house owners, planners, writers, and more are listed in William A. Shurcliff's latest book, which-like his other volumes - is an essential reference for anyone working in (or trying to keep up with) the field of solar energy. Copies of the 178-page manual are now available for $7.00 domestic or $9.00 foreign from Win. A. Shurcliff, 19 Appleton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
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