“OMG! Look at that smile!” Ima and Ken were sifting through an almost-forgotten shoe boxful of old photos . “That’s me the day I ditched the training wheels and peddled down the driveway on my own,” Ima exclaimed. “I was so happy! Golly, I suffered a lot of scraped shins before that, but when I finally got the knack of it, a whole new world of possibilities opened to me. Once I was a rider, there was no goin’ back.” Ima Peddler smiled.
Ken fished out another faded photo. “Wow, here’s Grandma Frieda Bea-Greener pointing at the solar thermal panels perched on her roof 30-some years ago. Those panels did reduce her hot water bill, but the maintenance was a bit much so they eventually came down. It was kinda like Uncle Will’s experiment with a small wind turbine on the farm. A good try, but…
“Ha! Here’s a shot of Uncle Les showing off his new rooftop photo-voltaic (PV) solar system. That would have been around 2012 because that year the cost per watt for solar had dropped almost 50% from the previous year, so he jumped onto the ‘solar express’.
“Ya know, in some ways, the clean energy revolution has been like learning to ride a bike. A few ‘scraped knees’ early on, but now that PV is SO economical, there ain’t no goin’ back. Just think, in 2011 the world price per solar watt was $2.00. The very next year it dropped to $1.08. By 2024 it was down to $0.26 - the least expensive source of energy on the planet!”
Ima knew that Ken Bea-Greener could get a bit over-excited about clean energy stuff. (With a last name like his, who wouldn’t be?) She’d read that currently there’s scant federal support for clean energy. So being a bit skeptical, Ima did a little research of her own. She learned:
“By golly, Ken’s right! With or without federal encouragement, a whole new world of clean energy is rapidly rolling ahead. Thank goodness, because this is our only home. We’re all forever… Earthbound.”
Ken fished out another faded photo. “Wow, here’s Grandma Frieda Bea-Greener pointing at the solar thermal panels perched on her roof 30-some years ago. Those panels did reduce her hot water bill, but the maintenance was a bit much so they eventually came down. It was kinda like Uncle Will’s experiment with a small wind turbine on the farm. A good try, but…
“Ha! Here’s a shot of Uncle Les showing off his new rooftop photo-voltaic (PV) solar system. That would have been around 2012 because that year the cost per watt for solar had dropped almost 50% from the previous year, so he jumped onto the ‘solar express’.
“Ya know, in some ways, the clean energy revolution has been like learning to ride a bike. A few ‘scraped knees’ early on, but now that PV is SO economical, there ain’t no goin’ back. Just think, in 2011 the world price per solar watt was $2.00. The very next year it dropped to $1.08. By 2024 it was down to $0.26 - the least expensive source of energy on the planet!”
Ima knew that Ken Bea-Greener could get a bit over-excited about clean energy stuff. (With a last name like his, who wouldn’t be?) She’d read that currently there’s scant federal support for clean energy. So being a bit skeptical, Ima did a little research of her own. She learned:
- In 2025, renewables overtook coal in electricity generation.
- Solar costs less than half what analysts in 2015 predicted it would in 2025.
- Electric vehicle (EV) sales already make up a quarter of the world’s market (mostly China and Europe) – a threshold initially forecast for 2030.
“By golly, Ken’s right! With or without federal encouragement, a whole new world of clean energy is rapidly rolling ahead. Thank goodness, because this is our only home. We’re all forever… Earthbound.”
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