SOLAR ENERGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Oversight Hearings WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1975 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY RESEARCH, The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 8:07 a.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Mike McCormack (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. McCORMACK. The meeting will come to order. I want to say good morning this morning to all of our bright-eyed guests at 8 a.m., and also to all of the Cincinnati Reds fans who watched the ballgame last night. We welcome you here this morning. Today the Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Subcommittee will review plans of the Energy Research and Development Administration for the Solar Energy Research Institute. The Solar Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1974, that is, Public Law 93-473, provided for a Solar Energy Research Institute to perform such research, development and related functions as may be determined to be necessary or appropriate in connection with the activities under the act or to be otherwise in furtherance of the purpose and objectives of the act. The solar programs established by the act are now consolidated in the national solar energy research, development and demonstration program within the ERDA, and the ERDA now has responsibility for implementing the Institute concept. This subcommittee's interest in the Solar Energy Research Institute concept has been long standing. The omnibus solar energy R. & D. bill, which established the Institute, was originally introduced in the House of Representatives by committee chairman Teague, Mr. Mosher, the committee's ranking minority member, Mr. Goldwater, the ranking minority member on this subcommittee, and myself. Eighty-nine Members of the House sponsored identical legislation, and this strong, bipartisan support was paralleled in the Senate with 25 Senators cosponsoring similar legislation. Both the House and the Senate bills, as passed by the respective chambers, included the exact language which appears in section 10 of Public Law 93-473 creating the Institute. (1) The committee report accompanying the bill, as reported, summarized our views at that time on the proposed Institute. It stated: The nature of solar energy research is such that it requires a large number of scientists each with a specific competence as well as a considerable amount of specially designed equipment. This necessitates a laboratory with a critical mass of such scientists and equipment to effectively concentrate on complex solar energy research and development problems. The Institute provides the organizational framework for such a scientific center. Congress as a whole shared this committee's interest and enthusiasm for the legislation generally, and for the Institute specifically. I have taken a moment to briefly review this legislative history of the Solar Energy Research Institute concept in order to firmly establish for all of us the strong congressional mandate for the Institute. To put the Institute in further perspective, it will not perform all, or perhaps even a large proportion, of the total solar research and development. It will have to compete for funds just as any not-for-profit institute or university or industrial laboratory. Its operating funds will come from the ERDA program budgets. The Institute will have a unique and extremely important role to play in knitting the fabric of solar energy, research, and development into a total program. This morning we will review the status of ERDA's planning by receiving testimony from the ERDA management and from the National Academy of Sciences and the Mitre Corp. I will leave to Dr. Teem of ERDA the task of detailing all of ERDA's various activities in this planning effort. Let me briefly summarize the situation, as we understand it, in order to provide a framework for our witnesses. This summary is also contained in the October 9, 1975, Energy News Notes before each member, which was also sent to all congressional offices. The ERDA is now in the final stages of defining the size of the Institute. On February 22, 1975, the ERDA requested that the National Academy conduct a study to support that effort. The Academy has just completed and published a detailed study and recommendations on the role, mission, and organizational structure of the Institute, as well as on-site selection criteria. A copy of the Academy study is before each member. On September 4, 1975, the Mitre Corp. was asked to conduct a companion study on the Institute's relationship with industry, and its role, mission and organizational structure. MITRE has just completed and published the study, and a summary and a copy of the study are before each member. Based on these studies and a parallel in-house effort, the ERDA intends to decide soon on the general characteristics the Institute should have, and to publish a dissemination of proposal guidelines and site selection criteria in November. Presumably, the ERDA will receive a host of proposals in response to this document. A final decision on the Institute site and organizational structure would then occur in the spring of 1976. Our immediate focus here is on a congressionally mandated laboratory on one or more sites, but with a single long-range mission: Solar energy research. Many of the issues, which will be raised and discussed this morning, are also directly applicable to broader questions regarding the future use of our existing Federal laboratories; in particular, the former AEC National laboratories and certain NASA Centers. We need to examine their roles in the context of research programs. This committee has a strong interest in these broader questions and, as a result, will be having hearing later in this Congress on the subject of national laboratory utilization. Our discussions this morning should serve well as an introduction to those hearings. Our first witness is Dr. John Teem, Assistant Administrator of the ERDA for Solar, Geothermal, and Advanced Energy Systems. I want to welcome you this morning, Dr. Teem, and ask you to introduce those accompanying you. Before we start, I would like to invite Congressman Goldwater to make an opening statement. Mr. GOLDWATER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and good morning to all of you. I have two comments to make before we begin this morning. First, I want to strongly second the chairman's remarks about this subcommittee's interest in the Solar Energy Research Institute. As a co-sponsor of the bill which established the Institute, I am keenly interested in the way ERDA implements our broad mandate for an Institute in the act. I would add to the chairman's comments that I believe it is our collective intention to aggressively discharge our oversight responsibility for ERDA's implementation. I therefore am certain that this will be only the first of many hearings over the years to come on the Institute's startup and operations. I also share the chairman's view that the issues we address on the Institute have broader implications regarding the National labs which we will also have to address in later hearings. One obvious such issue of concern to me, which we will address this morning, is the role of the Institute and the labs with industry in the solar program. Second, to inject a note of political and practical reality, this subcommittee fully recognizes that Dr. Teem and ERDA have been, and will continue to be, under intense political pressure on this question. Candidly, many congressional delegations, including my own California delegation, I am proud to say, have been mobilizing to support a State proposal for the Institute. This is an expected and legitimate manifestation of our representative form of National Government. But I would urge ERDA to maintain its independence and objectivity throughout the Institute selection process. At this time I want to commend Dr. Teem and ERDA for the fine job they have done thus far in this regard. I encourage them to keep it up. But I also urge ERDA to have the political courage to make the selection, or selections, which it honestly feels are in the best interest of the national solar research program and ultimately in the best interests of our quest for energy independence. I personally believe that this subcommittee, and the full committee will back ERDA 100 percent, as it has always done with NASA, provided that we are convinced ERDA decisions have been made honestly and objectively. Undoubtedly, there will be criticism of whatever choices are made, but that is nothing new to us here. And, if ERDA is doing its job aggressively and effectively in energy research, it's nothing new to them. Mr. Chairman, I know that Dr. Teem will address this issue at the end of his prepared statement, and I am pleased that he has chosen. to do so. But I think it is important that we go on record to this effect at the very beginning of our Institute oversight hearings. I would hope that the rest of the subcommittee will support this view as we move forward on the Institute. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. McCORMACK. Thank you, Mr. Goldwater. I certainly share your sentiments on the concept of this project. In fact, I heartily endorse the statement you just made. I shall mention to the members that we will be meeting until 10 o'clock this morning. Dr. Teem has a 10 o'clock meeting. Also, the Democratic caucus will meet at 9 o'clock. So we will leave, to return and reconvene this hearing until about 10 o'clock. Dr. Teem, would you care to proceed? STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN M. TEEM, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR SOLAR, GEOTHERMAL, AND ADVANCED ENERGY SYSTEMS, ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION Dr. TEEM. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Goldwater, and members of the committee, I want to thank the committee for the invitation to discuss the plans of the Energy Research and Development Administration to establish a Solar Energy Research Institute, for which we've been using a shorthand acronym of SERI, and if I may, I will use that as shorthand as we move ahead. As you know, section 10 of Public Law 93-473 calls for the establishment of a research institute to perform such research, development, and related functions as may be necessary in support of the national solar energy program. Inasmuch as SERI can be a very important national asset, every effort has been made to obtain the best thinking in the country as to the optimal role and desirable characteristics of such an institute. We have actively sought the views of scientists, engineers, management specialists, Governors, Congressmen, Government officials, environmentalists, industrialists, and the general public. We have benefited greatly from the diversity of views and the excellent suggestions which have been provided us to date. It is our desire to create a solar institute which will serve America well in helping to bring solar technology into the marketplace at the earliest possible moment. Let me now briefly describe our methodology for determining the role, mission, and managing organization for SERI, and our plans for selecting a site for the Institute. To establish SERI in an orderly and efficient manner, a three-phased program was established. Phase I involved a study and project initiation phase. It ran from January 19, when ERDA was formed, until September 15 of this year. In phase I, responsibility was assigned to a senior technical adviser on my staff, Dr. John Mock, to initiate studies helpful in defining the role, mission, organizational structure, and site-selection criteria for the Solar Institute, and to inform the public and appropriate officials of ERDA's activities and plans. Two major actions were taken: A contract was let in April 1975, with the National Academy of Sciences-assisted by the National Academy of Engineering-to provide ERDA with expert advice in |