The Glen Cove School District has been offered the opportunity to install 10 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof of the high school. These panels will convert sunlight directly to electricity that can be used to supply part of the district's electricity needs or, especially during the summer, can be sold to the Long Island Power Authority. All of the power produced will reduce the amount of oil burned in Long Island power plants. The system will be paid for by a grant from LIPA.

The earth holds a fixed amount of oil. Once half of the oil in a country is pumped out of the ground the rest is harder to pump and production goes down. The United States reached this point a few years ago. We now produce less oil every year, making up the difference with imports. Soon Venezuela, Mexico and Canada will be half depleted, and we will be increasingly dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

Oil and gas in the ground are stored sunlight. They are like a bank savings account (except that one can only make withdrawals, not deposits). Near the middle of this century, half of all the oil in the earth will have been withdrawn, and, despite increasing effort and cost, less oil will be pumped each year. Unless we reduce our dependence on oil, our future will be bleak.

What are our alternatives? Coal and nuclear energy are enormous savings accounts from which we can withdraw energy. But power from conversion of sunlight to electricity is part of our income from the sun. If we can live on it, we can avoid depleting our savings.

Roof solar panels are the beginning of a major change from depleting our savings to living on our income. Solar panels will help to make Glen Cove students, teachers and community leaders aware of both the energy problem and a possible solution. Ten kilowatts is a small but good start. If panels covered the roofs of most large buildings in America, our oil use and our need for new power plants would be reduced. The crisis that will occur when half of the earth's oil has been depleted would be delayed.

By installing solar panels the Glen Cove School District can take a practical step showing responsibility, leadership and foresight toward the solution of one of mankind's largest long-term problems.

Donald Scarl