Solar Energy Research Institute

The nightmare of radioactive waste, the politics of our shrinking fossil-fuel supplies and the pollution caused by strip-mining are reasons enough to look into energy alternatives like solar power.

But while the technology for solar power exists, the stumbling block has been making it affordable, whether for private or industrial use. This year Michigan, specifically the Detroit area, hopes to be selected for the site of the Solar Energy Research lnstitute (SERI) which has been established by the Federal Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA).

The proposed institute would conduct research on solar energy to be used in conjunction with other energy sources.

The Michigan Energy and Resource Research Association (MERRA), a group of state government, university and industrial interests which has urged SERI to locate in Michigan, argues that Michigan is the most obvious location for the institute because of its close proximity to the heating and cooling and glass industries.

MERRA also argues that Michigan can offer the institute an abundance of skilied labor and manufacturing capabilities. In addition, 25% of the machine tool industry is focused in Michigan.

Under the MERRA proposal a non-profit Corporation made up of representatives of business, industry, education and labor would advise the Solar Energy Institute should Michigan be chosen.

Suggested locations include Northville, Rouge Park, Ann Arbor and Livonia. The Bendix Corporation, which operates a solar simulator in Ann Arbor, would manage and operate the project.

A secondary benefit would be the creation of 1,500 jobs once the institute is operational.

Whatever the final location, the Solar Energy Institute will investigate solar heating and cooling, thermal electric energy, photovoltaic electricity, wind power, bio-mass conversion and ocean thermal gradients.

The test of solar energy will be in its application and cost-effectiveness. Today it does not compete with other available fuels. Most believe it can be expected to play at best an auxiliary role to other energy sources.

Solar energy does not offer immediate answers to the nation's energy problems. By one ERDA estímate only 7% of the nation's energy needs could be supplied by solar power by the year 2000. Production of commercial-size generating plants won't begin before 1990, and the high cost of storage facilities for use on cloudy days does not attract enthusiasm.

"During the next 10 years, solar energy will definitely be a part of our existence," predicted Dr. Thomas Curtin, Director of Research and Sponsored Program Services at Wayne State University.

According to Curtin, the potential of solar energy is sizeable and the techniques are known, but it's up to industry to streamline the mechanics of solar energy to make it economically feasible.

In Detroit the Smith Hinchman and Grylls Architectural firm unveiled a 1,000-square-foot solar collector on the roof of their downtown office building last November. Installed primarily to keep abreast of current trends, the system has not yet provided cost-efficient power, company spokesman James Gallagher told The Sun.

Unlike the usual flat-plate collectors, the SHG building is equipped with a 1000-square-foot collector made up of 864 triplewalled vacuum glass tubes.

On a sunny day it heats water up to 240 degrees F. The water is extracted to heat 4 different units in the building, though not simultaneously, Gallagher explained.

The solar collector has an average daily capacity of 1 million b.t.u.s and operates in conjunction with city-provided steam power. The sophisticated data-collecting apparatus is expected to provide useful information to research groups and industry.

Many SHG clients, some industrial, have requested feasibility studies on solar power, Gallagher said.

Recently the oil companies, the aero-space industry and the major automakers have become interested in ERDA grants to investígate solar energy.

Locally, Detroit Edison is pursuing wind energy research. Together with Consumers Power and ERDA, Detroit Edison is building a 125-kilowatt wind turbine near Ludington, Michigan to study the functional practicality of large wind turbines connected to electric power stations.

The public can see solar and wind power at work at the public campgrounds in Point Aux Barque, Upland Hills Farm School and at the UAW Black Lake Retreat - all in Michigan.

Wayne State University Chemistry professor Richard Komp told The Sun he is completing work on a solar-heated studio shop building in southern Indiana.

His individual design uses the conventional collector system of flat aluminum plates plus a wood stove back-up heating system. "Next winter if it doesn't work we'll freeze," Komp said candidly.

Commercial installations and do-it-yourself kits have already hit the market in response to the growing popularity of solar energy. Environmental Energies, Inc. of Copemich, Michigan (formerly on Grand River Avenue in Detroit) sells feasibility studies and solar collectors for domestic hot-water systems. For S4.25 NASA will provide details on the construction of a solar supplement to a domestic warm-air system for a cost of about $2000 - all from readily-available materials.