Steve Baer is an American engineer and inventor born in 1938, known worldwide for his research on direct applications of solar energy.
After studying mathematics in Switzerland, he joined the counterculture and alternative community of Drop City (Colorado) in the United States in the mid-1960s, where he conducted his first research on solar energy.
Subsequently, he founded the company Zomeworks near Albuquerque (New Mexico), specializing in passive heating and cooling using solar energy. He holds numerous patents in this field.
His book Sunspots published in 1975 describes his main inventions and constitutes a reference manual on the direct use of solar energy. He presents methods for very simply manufacturing solar water heaters or air collectors.
For the first time, Steve Baer's texts have been translated and published in French in the anthology which I directed on the history of low-tech at T&P Work Unit.
These unpublished texts entitled “Basic Technologies” and “The Paradox of the Clothesline” show that we have forgotten all the services provided free of charge by the climate and that it seems essential to increase research on passive and low-tech applications of solar energy.
The book An anthology for understanding Low-Tech, with an afterword by Philippe Bihouix, is available in bookstores near you.
It is also available on order from the publisher.
Image: Wikimedia (Boyd Norton, National Archives and Records Administration).