that solar energy is here and now for practical, economical utilization. Once an individual pays for his/her solar system it belongs to them, their own "utility company." With SPS, the taxpayers will subsidize the utilities, etc. to have them enter the SPS market, only to turn around and have to purchase at very high rates, solar electricity. Why won't individuals simply purchase their own photovoltaic arrays and generate their own "roof-top" electricity? The answer is that they will indeed. Primarily because when cells are cheap enough for SPS applications, they will also be inexpensive enough for the general public. NASA participation is due to a declining support base, which naturally would rejoice at another "moon race" scaled program. Of course, one would expect Congressional support for SPS funding to come from heavy aerospace constituencies such as Flippo (D.-AL), and Fuqua (D-FL). The formation of several appropriate technology oriented solar political action committees should decrease the possibility for this support base to be reelected in 1980. The energy crisis will be wrangled in the political arena as well as your neighbors backyard. Strong sentiments from the solar community have already limited current SPS funding exclusively to terrestrial feasibility studies. Still in our infancy, we are educating the American public faster than your institutions are learning. By the time the appropriate technology community reaches puberty, SPS will be remembered as a technology "that never got off the ground."
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