Solar Futures: The View from 1965

How did the profile of future energy sources look in 1965? Here’s a graph presented by L. P. Gaucher, researcher for Texaco, at the Solar Energy Society Conference in Phoenix, and published in Solar Energy*.

The accompanying text includes some statements that appear wrong (now, in retrospect)…
“Natural gas probably will be the very first source of energy to become in short supply.”
“For the coal industry, things look rosy.”
…and some prescient statements:
“over the longer range, say fifty to a hundred years from now, means of transmitting electric power to moving vehicles on the highways may have been perfected.”
“as the cost of liquid fuels increases, their uses for some purposes may have to give way to competing sources of energy, notably electrification.”

*Gaucher, Leon P. “Energy sources of the future for the United States.” Solar Energy 9, no. 3 (1965): 119-126.

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Previously on the blog:
Solar Futures: The View from 1979
Solar Futures: The View from 1978
Solar Futures: The View from 1973
Solar Futures: The View from 1952