GOING SOLAR

With all the news about the solar plane that recently completed a 24 hour trip powered solely by the sun, it seems that efficient and renewable energy is nearer than previously thought.

In addition, with the huge mess the BP oil spill is causing in the Gulf of Mexico, governments and people in general are realizing that we all need to focus on bringing in an era of clean and green power before we totally pollute our own backyard.

However, there remain numerous issues that will hopefully be worked out in the near future.

For starters there is the issue of how solar power should be produced. Will utility-style solar farms on huge tracts of land be the solution, or will a distributed model with every home/business having its own solar panel be the way?

The utility-scale model has several drawbacks as it requires large amounts of land, huge amounts of water (for the current wet-cooling technology), and can potentially harm the environment and wildlife in the area. Additionally, transmission lines need to be developed and electricity storage is still a problem rendering nighttime electricity into a nightmare.

On the other hand, the distributed model with everyone having their own solar panel on their rooftop also has some challenges. Only areas with high levels of sunlight can really benefit and installation costs are still quite high. Currently, installation costs can reach $40,000 while roughly only 15% of a household's energy needs will be met by solar panels. Even though the solar panels should have around a 30 year life, it will take a long time before they pay for themselves.

Despite this, the distributed model's issue is mainly of efficiency and each year the technology improves, It's very feasible that in a few short years, anyone who even gets a few hours of sunlight will be able to power up their home just from the sun.

Of course, governmental involvement could influence the way things turn out, but my bet is that there will be both utility and distributed models working side-by-side.

Let's just hope for the sake of our children that we fully develop and implement the technology that will allow us to harvest this clean, renewable source of energy....before it's too late.