Energy: Planning solar's future: Solar power struggles for economic viability; its proponents see it as an important, if small, complement to traditional sources

In view of the relatively short time solar energy has been on the national agenda in the U.S., the progress toward large-scale solar-powered generation of electricity can be considered significant — although views have been expressed to the effect that the entire program (which includes solar-electric power generation technologies) could be accelerated. Technological, economic, budgetary, and institutional factors have been named (Spectrum, Dec. 1975, pp. 47-52) as key impediments slowing the pace of contribution of solar-electric technologies to the generation of electric energy. In this article, we shall examine the budgetary and developmental targets of various solar-electric technologies — namely, wind, photovoltaic, solar-thermal, ocean-thermal, and satellite power generation — in comparison with other technologies that are expected to contribute significantly, in the long term, to the generation of electric power. The present status and problems of some of the solar-electric technologies are also addressed.