Harry Thomason - Solar Energy
(Page 10 of 13)
November/December 1979
By Richard Freudenberger
PLOWBOY: Do you mean the United States Government actually tested your Solaris system?
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THOMASON: Why, they began testing it back in 1962 . . . but it wasn't until February of 1979 that a full report was finally published.
PLOWBOY: I've heard of bureaucracies being slow, but are you saying that it took the government seventeen years to compile one report?
THOMASON: No, there were several different tests made during that period. I'll give you a brief rundown of the events as they took place. In 1962, the federal government hired an engineering consultant to report on the Thomason solar system. The account presented to the FHA, which was sponsoring the study, praised
"The government's spent millions of dollars on tinsel red Rube Goldberg solar contraptions that don't work."
the system highly. Yet, for 10 full years, the government did nothing with the results, of that test. Then, in 1972, the University of Pennsylvania submitted a proposal to HUD to test the system. They never got funding, despite the fact that an official of HUD supported the proposal. Two more years went by. In 1974, both Colorado State University and George Washington University asked to test the efficiency of my Solaris system. After over a year of delay, we were informed that the GWU proposal was considered dead. I was amazed . . . here was an apparently qualified organization offering to test an existing, built-and-paid-for, low-cost solar energy system and all it got was the cold shoulder. Yet the government continued to spend-and waste -literally millions of taxpayer dollars building and testing expensive, unproven apparatus!
PLOWBOY: But you obviously didn't take that decision lying down ....
THOMASON: I did not! We visited congressmen, senators, the Vice President . . . we even went to the White House. Eventually, as the result of a lot of persuasion, George Washington University was granted $189,000 to test and report on -in conjunction with the United States Department of Energy-the Thomason Solaris system.
PLOWBOY: And when did the study actually begin?
THOMASON: Preliminary work started in the spring of 1976 . . . but no actual data were recorded until November of that year. The test took place near Washington, D.C. in Solaris No. 6, the identical twin of the house you're now in.
PLOWBOY: Did the DOE keep you informed of the progress of the study?
THOMASON: They did not. In fact, they kept the findings from us until September 1977 . . . some time after they had finished the winter part of the study. When the rough report was presented to us, we saw why it had been delayed: The study was totally unacceptable, and the DOE was undoubtedly embarrassed by it. Test figures were incomplete, many data were incorrect or missing entirely . . . in short, the report was not nearly worth $189,000 of the taxpayers' money. We insisted on results more proportionate to the public's expenditure.
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