SE-76-01-2 -- A Progress Report on the National Program for Solar Heating and Cooling

The United States has become acutely aware of the continuing necessity for a national effort to surmount our present energy difficulties and to avoid new problems in the future. A key element in the Federal response,to the growing energy problem was the January 1975 creation of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). ERDA brings together the major energy research and development programs of several Federal agencies directed toward increasing the supply of energy and the conservation of the energy we now have. ERDA provides a sound organizational and programmatic base for advancing the state of energy technology in all promising areas, including solar, fossil, nuclear -fission and fusion, geothermal, and other systems.

This paper focuses on those functions performed under the assistant administrator for solar, geothermal and advanced energy systems by the Division of Solar Energy, as directed by Congress in the Solar Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1974 (PL 93-473) and the Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Act of 1974 (PL 93-409).