(a) The Chairman shall initiate a solar energy resource determination and assessment program with the objective of making a regional and national appraisal of all solar energy resources, including data on insolation, wind, sea thermal gradients, and potentials for photosynthetic conversion. The program shall emphasize identification of promising areas for commercial exploitation and development. The specific goals shall include—
(1) the development of better methods for predicting the availability of all solar energy resources, over long time periods and by geographic location;
(2) the development of advanced meteorological, oceanographic, and other instruments, methodology, and procedures necessary to measure the quality and quantity of all solar resources on periodic bases;
(3) the development of activities, arrangements, and procedures for the collection, evaluation, and dissemination of information and data relating to solar energy resource assessment.
(b) The Chairman, acting through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other appropriate agencies, shall—
(1) develop and carry out a general plan for inventorying all forms of solar energy resources associated with Federal lands and (where consistent with property rights) non-Federal lands;
(2) conduct regional surveys based upon such general plan, using innovative meteorological, oceanographic, and space-related techniques, in sufficient numbers to lead to a national inventory of solar energy resources in the United States;
(3) publish and make available maps, reports, and other documents developed from such surveys to encourage and facilitate the commercial development of solar energy resources; and
(4) make such recommendations for legislation as may appear to be necessary to establish policies for solar resources involving Federal lands and waters, consistent with known inventories of various resource types, with the state of technologies for solar energy development, and with evaluation of the environmental impacts of such development.
(Pub. L. 93–473, §5, Oct. 26, 1974, 88 Stat. 1433.)