240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
now in nonindustrialized areas. High efficiency of the conversion 
of expensive fuel into work and low labor requirements have been 
the technological goals in industrialized countries. But sunshine is 
almost free and so efficiency of conversion is less important. Low 
capital investment and small repair requirements are much more 
important than engine efficiency and low labor costs. 
The need for new sources of power was clearly brought out at the 
Geneva Conference on Atoms for Peace in 1955. It seemed clear 
that atomic power can be produced on a large scale, in the future, 
for only a few tenths of a cent per kilowatt hour more than coal- 
generated power. It seemed clear, too, that atomic power can be pro- 
vided in small units very soon at a price considerably higher than that 
of coal-generated electricity. The price is not interesting in the 
United States, but it was interesting to some of the nonindustrialized 
nations. It was pointed out that to build conventional powerplants 
in remote, nonindustrialized areas requires large capital investments 
such as the building of railroads and freight cars and engines, and 
the installation of coal-mining machinery. Atomic power requires 
much less of these capital costs and so a higher price can be paid for 
atomic power. The same considerations apply to solar energy. Be- 
cause the costs of fuel and transportation of fuel are negligible and 
because heavy capital investments for combustion fuel accessories 
are eliminated, it is possible to pay more for sun-generated electricity 
than the industrialized countries are accustomed to pay for coal- and 
oil-generated electricity. 
The difference in labor costs between industrialized and nonindus- 
trialized areas should be considered also in the development of solar 
energy. Adjusting mirrors to face the sun at frequent intervals and 
dusting them off could perhaps be done for less than a dollar a day 
by a bullock driver, turned solar operator. Operators in industrial- 
ized countries might cost more than ten times as much. Hand opere- 
tion then may be cheaper and simpler than automatic operation in 
nonindustrialized countries, and it can permit a large reduction in the 
cost of the equipment. In places where electricity is not available, 
housewives would probably be glad to turn a wheel by hand at fre- 
quent intervals in order to preserve the family’s food in a simple 
solar-operated refrigerator. 
Still another factor in our awakened interest in solar energy is the 
development of new materials. Large areas of solar collectors are 
required for the utilization of solar energy, and large areas of any 
material are expensive. Machinery, metals, glass, and concrete cost 
thousands of dollars per acre. We live in an age of plastics; and 
thin plastics are now available which cost only hundreds of dollars 
per acre. Here is a new frontier where we may have a chance of 
cutting costs and making solar devices more economical. 
