Labor Department figures show that productivity in the services sectorwhere electronic equipment should have maximum impact and which employs nearly three quarters of all American workersis scarcely above levels in the mid-1970s, chiefly because of problems understanding and adapting to new technology.
3. Solar Energy
Solar power was an exotic new technology when John Schaeffer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 and helped start a primitive commune in the woods in northern California. He was a tinkerer, and in his spare time he managed to rig up a solar-powered television set so he wouldnt have to miss his favorite shows. Soon Schaeffer was selling solar panels to his fellow urban refugees. Today Schaeffers beard has become a white goatee, and his Real Goods Trading Company has blossomed into a catalog operation that is the countrys largest retailer of home solar equipment. With a circulation of 400,000, the catalog offers everything for the energy-efficient home. The growth of Real Goodssales have jumped from $29,000 in 1986 to $10 million in 1933is a small but sharp tremor along the shifting tectonic plates of Americas energy landscape.
Until now, solar energy has appealed mostly to affluent homeowners and the save-the-environment folks. Thats because buying and installing solar equipment can cost $15,000 for an average-size home before any currents starts to flow. Whats making solar energy so hot? For one thing, the technology is getting better and cheaper. The price of the photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity has fallen sharply from $500 a watt in the 1960s to about $4 today.
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