Watts Happening?

by Don Pettit for Peace Energy Cooperative www.peaceenergy.ca ph 250-782-3882

Nay-sayers to YEA!-sayers

Home solar arrays like this one have become commonplace in Ontario since that provinces Green Energy Act made solar power cost-competitive with fossil fuels, unleashing a photovoltaic energy boom. (photo by Peace Energy Coop director Roy Mumby on his recent tour of Ontario PV installations).

ccording to current astronomical knowledge, the solar system, along with Earth and its sister planets, will be around for about another 4 to 5 billion years. Throughout that inconceivable span of time, the sun will continue to bathe the little blue marble we call home with all the energy it needs. SHIELDS UP SCOTTY! But not everything that comes from the sun is good. Charged particles in the solar wind could quickly sterilize everything on Earth. Thankfully, we are protected by a giant invisible force field generated by the Earths magnetic field, which deflects these deadly particles harmlessly around us.

On Earth, our Star Trek shields are always up. Most of what gets through our energy shield is good for us, with one main exception, ultraviolet (UV) light, deadly to fragile molecular structures like DNA. But now life comes to its own rescue: green plants use carbon dioxide and water to make food and oxygen. The oxygen (also handy for breathing) rises to the top of the atmosphere and is transformed by UV into another wonderful invisible shield, ozone. Finally, after passing through these protective layers, beneficial sunlight floods our home. Other than the tidal sloshing caused by our moon and some leaked geothermal heat from our molten core, the Sun powers everything on Earth. Uneven solar heating causes air to move as winds and storms;

it supplies the immense energy needed to run our planetary hydrological cycle, evaporating and condensing, and thus purifying, billions of liters of water every second; and of course sunlight drives the entire biosphere, making all life possible, from the simplest blue-green algae to you and me. So when we are talking about solar power we are actually talking about wind energy, hydroelectric energy, solar electricity, solar heating, and biomass energy. A LOT MORE THAN ENOUGH The sun is constantly delivering about 15,000 times more energy than is consumed by the entire human population. It is ridiculous to assert, as many still do, that humanitys entire energy needs cannot be met from solar energy alone. It is equally ridiculous to assert (as many still do) that although our modern technologies are now capable of just about anything we can imagine, somehow they are not quite up to the relatively simple task of making this immensely abundant energy source meet our every need. Cant figure out how to store energy when the sun isnt shining? Ive been doing it at my solar powered home for thirty years with an ancient 19th century technology: the lead-acid battery. Apply some 21st century thinking to the problem and you get solid, practical answers pretty quickly. Need a carbon-neutral liquid fuel to pump into your gas tank? Weve known how to do that since

the year 1800 when Humphry Davy first used electricity to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is actually the perfect liquid fuel: apply solar electricity to water, get hydrogen (nontoxic) and oxygen (good for breathing), compress and liquefy. When burned, get back your energy and your water with zero pollution. Not bad. In spite of the nay-sayers (who are loosing ground to a new wave of YEA!-sayers) the world is going ahead with solar energy anyway. Here are a few quick examples: - India has just announced the building of what it is calling the worlds largest solar power project in Rajasthan. The farm will blanket about 93 square kilometers with solar panels and have a peak output of 4,000 megawatts. Thats more that the WAC Bennett Dam and the Peace Canyon Dam (on the Peace River in northeast BC) combined. - Last year, global investment in renewable energy was more than the world invested in fossil fuel and nuclear generation combined. Based on these trends, investment in renewables is expected to reach $500 billion to $1 trillion annually sometime between 2020 and 2030. - Last year, the number of Australians with solar panels on their roofs reached two million. A similar number of folks in Europe are already generating their own power with sunlight. The list goes on, and its a long one. While the sun still shines, unlimited clean energy literally fills the world in which we live. Time to start harvesting, Canada!

Watts Happening? Quick Fact:

Electric vehicles will win the race: between now and 2022, sales of plug-in electric vehicles are expected to grow at a significantly faster rate that the sale of internal-combustion light duty vehicles. Why? Because electric vehicles will cost less to purchase, fuel and maintain, and they run without pollution.