Solar Comes to (Part Of) The Earth

[glitch]

Interesting article on solar that emphasizes opportunity costs:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17416

Solar energy is wildly popular. For good reason. Free and universally available sunshine can dramatically reduce our dependence on global energy conglomerates and imported oil.

The key fact is this. In most parts of the world sufficient sunlight strikes the surfaces of buildings on an annual basis to power an efficient household and an efficient electric car.

The technology that uses sunlight to generate electricity is called a solar cell or photovoltaic. A paper-thin semiconductor device, the solar cell has no moving parts. The resulting high reliability and maintenance free properties of the solar cell have made it cost-effective for certain applications despite its sky-high price.

...

The age of solar has finally dawned. The good news is that Americans will soon be able to rely on the sun to meet most of their energy needs. The bad news is that the tens of billions of dollars they spend to achieve this goal will go to Japanese, not American corporations. That is the price we will pay for our inability to convince American companies to shoulder their responsibility for building a sustainable, democratic, renewable energy future.

[terryg11]

1. that's not what Alliant energy said

at a twn meeting a few weeks ago we had some Alliant energy reps in to give us their side of why we shouldn't municipalize our town's energy and someone asked them about solar energy and their answer was that it's not that reliable or too expensive. I hadn't read too much about it but know two homeowners who have it and they love it - and these people have oldr versions of solar paneling, at least three to four years old, so I would imaGine that the newer stuff is even better