Prospects and limitations of solar energy utilization in developing countries

The effects of prospective uses of direct solar energy for power production, saline-water distillation, refrigeration and air conditioning, water heating, crop drying, etc, on the prosperity of the developing countries are discussed. A “solar home” of the 21st Century fulfilling all its energy requirements from the sun is visualized. Finally the difficulties in the way of solar-energy utilization due to the economic limitations as compared with conventional fuels are analyzed and presented in detail. The results are presented in a graphical form for finding the solar collector area required for a specific application of solar energy under various conditions of solar insolation and solar machine efficiencies and to assess the economic feasibility of solar-energy utilization for different applications when the costs of fuel, solar collector, and machine fabrication materials are known.