ABSTRACT
The goal of improving the physical quality of life is dependent upon finding substitutes for human energy at the village level. Most village tasks are done with human or animal muscles. The effort to improve human material wellbeing over the past many millenia has consisted in major part of finding and applying substitutes for human energy. Some of these substitutes have been sources of energy completely separate from the human body such as fire, wind, sun, draft animals, and flowing water. Geothermal energy sites offer another significant source of energy for selected developing countries once certain technical and environmental problems are resolved. In many rural villages the only contact with modern energy may be a diesel driven pump or generator which lights a few commercial or public buildings and the trucks and buses that pass through.
