“Aww… Some band even wrote a song about me!” Ms. Sun gushed. “But what an odd name – The Beatles?! Golly, another galactic year come and gone. It’s time to check in on my planets. Hmm…let’s see what I’ve provided Earth since last New Years - 250 million Earth-years ago.
“Light - Check Warmth - Check Energy for photosynthesis - Check
That clever photosynthesis trick created trillions of tons of organic matter that eventually turned into fossil fuels enabling humans to thrive and prosper - Check More free solar energy than humans will ever need to power everything on Earth - Check.”
Ms. Sun got a kick out of listening in on snatches of Earth transmissions. She’d recently learned that humans figured out how to harness her boundless solar energy to generate electricity. They’d no longer have to set things on fire (and pollute their world) to have all the heat, light and power they’d ever need. Some snatches:*
*From a “Volts” conversation with Bill McKibben and Jamie Henn
“Light - Check Warmth - Check Energy for photosynthesis - Check
That clever photosynthesis trick created trillions of tons of organic matter that eventually turned into fossil fuels enabling humans to thrive and prosper - Check More free solar energy than humans will ever need to power everything on Earth - Check.”
Ms. Sun got a kick out of listening in on snatches of Earth transmissions. She’d recently learned that humans figured out how to harness her boundless solar energy to generate electricity. They’d no longer have to set things on fire (and pollute their world) to have all the heat, light and power they’d ever need. Some snatches:*
- Solar energy is now the least expensive electrical generation power source. Solar has become everyman’s “Costco” of energy. Why pay more?
- Last year, 95% of new generated energy around the world and in the U.S. was clean, renewable energy. Solar isn’t an “alternative” energy anymore; it’s the main attraction!
- With thoughtful policy changes, the world will enter an Age of Abundance - everyone generating and storing energy for their own needs. Imagine being free from the costs, conflicts and pollution of a petroleum-based economy!
- Every form of energy involves some trade-offs; solar’s trade-offs are minimal. For example, a boatload of solar panels provides about 500 times as much energy as a boatload of coal. The solar materials can be recycled over and over. And the coal?... up in smoke!
- The cost for one gigawatt (a billion watts) of nuclear power is about equivalent to the cost for 15 gigawatts from solar and wind which can be built 3 – 7 times faster.
*From a “Volts” conversation with Bill McKibben and Jamie Henn
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