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"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon

Personal Solar Plant  
  A single-home solar-powered energy source.  

An early take on this idea.

"...For instance there is the solar plant. You know what a solar plant is."

Vickers nodded. "A power plant operated by the sun."

"Exactly," said the salesman. "This plant, however, is somewhat more efficient than the usual solar plant. It not only heats the house in winter, but supplies electrical power for all the year around. It eliminates the necessity of relying upon a public utility for your power. I might add there is plenty of power, much more than you will ever need."

Technovelgy from Ring Around the Sun, by Clifford Simak.
Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1952
Additional resources -

Compare to black power from Larry Niven's 1995 novella The Woman in Del Rey Crater, the solar power reception screens from Robert Heinlein's 1940 novella The Roads Must Roll and the shipstone from Heinlein's 1982 novel Friday.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Ring Around the Sun
  More Ideas and Technology by Clifford Simak
  Tech news articles related to Ring Around the Sun
  Tech news articles related to works by Clifford Simak

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