MOTHER's Newsworthies: S. David Freeman, John Denver and George E. Brown, Jr.

Image Gallery John Denver is active in his community to help fight against malnutrition and starvation as well as the protection of wilderness areas. PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Brief: S. David Freeman

New Yorkers still remember — with stunned smiles — the result of a power conservation campaign conducted by a local utility a few years ago. The area's energy consumption went down all right ... and an application for a rate hike was immediately filed — by the utility — on the grounds that profits were cut by the lowered usage! Not all power companies subscribe to such crazy logic, though ... and the words of the new Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority have the sweet sound of sanity. S. David Freeman, speaking last September — just four months after his appointment as head of the TVA — told his audience that "solar power is on the verge of a fantastic boom in America ... we need to demonstrate to the public that a wide range of solar applications can be used here and now, and will save energy, save the environment, and save money as well. What's needed is an affirmative action policy for the sun."

Corporate rhetoric, followed by business as usual? Not in this case. Freeman offered action ... and a rationale that made economic sense. A TVA pilot project in Memphis will install over 1,000 solar water heaters in private homes, and the program will be financed by 20 year, low-interest loans underwritten by the Authority. Customers of the local utility — whose monthly electric water heating bills now average between $12 and $17 — will pay for the solar installation at the rate of $12 a month ... plus $1 for maintenance and an estimated maximum of $3 for off-peak electricity for the backup system.

This means that Memphis residents will have solar water heating for pretty much the same price they now pay for conventional service. But things will get even better in the future, according to Freeman. Since only the rate for the backup system's electricity will ever increase, those solar customers will — by 1998 be paying an estimated $25 a month ... about a third of what folks with electric water heaters will pay. And, in 1999 (when the 20-year loan is paid off), solar costs will actually drop by $12 a month!