ized, and large-scale, centralized, solar technologies; not only rooftop panels, solar cookers, and windmills, but hydroelectric power, solar thermal conversion, photovoltaics, ocean thermal conversion and solar power satellites capable of generating power on a utility scale to meet social, environmental, and economic criteria. The political consequences of developing globally applicable solar energy technologies are likely to be far reaching, and worth an unprecedented effort in international cooperation. Such cooperation could lead to a safer and more stable world. In contrast, the use of energy resources based on nonrenewable fuels is more likely to have the opposite effect because the energy resources or the technology required to convert them into useful forms are under the political control of only a few nations. Therefore, the most desirable solar energy technologies will be those which meet the following criteria: significant global impacts, conservation of materials resources, economic competitiveness with conversion methods based on the use of nonrenewable energy sources, environmental benignancy, and acceptability to the countries of the world. POWER FROM SPACE FOR USE ON EARTH Third World countries, together with developed countries, should consider space — an ocean rich with energy materials and opportunities — as the new frontier containing resources critical to the long-term survival of humanity. Since the dawn of the technological era, the extension of human activities into space had been a challenge — one only recently overcome. The lunar landing in July 1969 and the successful mission of the space shuttle in April 1981 have shown that space and all its energy and materials resources are accessible. However, even with all the potential benefits to future generations on this planet, to most of the people in the Third World, many facing the immediate and mundane problems of their daily existence, space remains as remote and incomprehensible as the astrophysicists' discussions of “black holes.” Therefore, a major task will be to provide information to Third World decision makers that verifies space as being a new frontier for all the world's people. One option which could meet the suggested criteria for the development of solar energy technologies and which is particularly relevant to the Third World is the conversion of solar energy in space for use on earth. The proposal to convert solar energy to electricity in an orbit around the earth and then transmit the electricity via microwaves or laser beams to ground stations for distribution through a regular utility system was advanced in 1968. The solar power satellite (SPS) concept challenged the then prevalent view that solar energy conversion could not make a significant contribution on a global scale and indicated that there are no known limits to the amount of energy available in space. Although not a panacea for increasingly complex environmental and other societal problems of energy supply, the SPS concept represents an alternative direction for developing renewable energy sources, and for engaging in sustainable human activities in space in the 21st century. Energy delivered to the earth from space could overcome the physical, societal, and institutional limitations which future generations will be subjected to by dwindling energy resources on earth. The SPS concept could break open the closed terrestrial ecological system so that humanity need not be forced to live from generation to generation facing the threats of food and energy shortages and suffering the resulting social upheavals. Extraterrestrial resources could help meet the requirements of the global population in the 21st century. If these resources are not taken
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