| The first industrial solar plants were already in | | | | yet effective way of cutting down one's gas bills. |
| operation by 1946, and the trade magazine Power | | | | People living in the South or Southwest, may have |
| announced the installation of two Molero solar | | | | seen such a water heater in action. Already, by 1941, |
| converters at the great government cannery at | | | | more than ten thousand Florida homes had been |
| Tashkent, Uzbek, U.S.S.R. This is an agricultural region | | | | equipped with them. Sun-heated water often attains a |
| of central Asia, remote from sources of ordinary fuel. | | | | temperature of 206°F., which is only six degrees |
| The solar converters have made long-distance | | | | under boiling. If the system is properly insulated, |
| shipments of fuel to Tashkent unnecessary. Another | | | | heat-loss is less than one degree per hour. Installation |
| important feature is that Tashkent's largest power | | | | costs are considerable although not unreasonable, but |
| requirement happens to coincide with those months of | | | | operation is as free as is the sunlight. Homes utilizing |
| the year when sunlight is most plentiful. Results at | | | | the radiation of the sun in this way require far less |
| Tashkent have not yet been reported. However, Dr. | | | | artificial heat than the ordinary type of home. Glass |
| Molero is emphatic on the point that solar converters | | | | areas are fixed, except for ventilating louvres at the |
| have ceased to be novelties, or merely curious | | | | left. By extending this kind of system, entire buildings |
| contraptions of dream-eyed inventors. "All fundamental | | | | can be heated by sun-power. |
| questions pertaining to the manufacture of solar | | | | General Edmond Pasteur of the French Army Medical |
| energy converters have already been settled," he | | | | Corps claims to have developed solar radiators to the |
| says. "We are able to produce sub-assemblies serially | | | | point where he is able to furnish all the heat necessary |
| for subsequent assembly on the spot. Everything now | | | | for the hospitals in Algeria. But an even more significant |
| hinges on their further simplification and reduction of | | | | method of using solar energy abandons the idea of |
| production costs." | | | | pipe systems and storage tanks altogether. Let the |
| Maintenance costs, of course, are negligible. But | | | | rays stream right into your living room, say the |
| sun-power can be put to work at lower potential | | | | designers of "solar houses," who have made millions of |
| without complicated mirrors or elaborate boiler tank | | | | Americans aware of sunshine in the last few years as |
| arrangements. A closed-cycle system, in which | | | | never before. They will intrigue the architects of |
| sun-heated water circulates from a "solar absorber" | | | | tomorrow. |
| on the roof of a building to a storage tank, is a simple | | | | |
