Home Solar Power

There is no shortage of evidence that many of the major problems of the world can be blamed on modern technology. Mass production of goods and mass transportation together with the factories and vehicles that enable all this devour the planet’s resources and pollute on an epic scale.

A central issue is that we have been burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil to provide the energy that powers our modern technologies. The fact is that more has now been burned than remains in the ground, and if that isn’t depressing enough, all the fuel that has been burned to date has been relentlessly pumping surplus CO2 into the atmosphere.

So we’re filling up at the Last Chance Gas Station and will soon be running on fumes, waiting for the inevitable breakdown and long walk back. It would be ironic if the final blow was delivered by our own modern transport network in the form of some especially virulent worldwide pandemic.

But how likely is this scenario really and can the blame all be laid at the door of technology? The fact is that this is hardly a first offence - as a species we have a pretty poor record when it comes bad behaviour leading to unfortunate consequences. But every time we’ve somehow managed to survive and emerge stronger.

The point to understand is that humans and technology are inseparable - it’s part of our fundamental makeup. Any time an archaeologist unearths an ancient set of remains and identifies them as human you can be fairly sure that fossilized evidence of the technologies of those times will not be far away.

Since the dawn of human history it seems we have made weapons and tools, worn decorations and clothing, preserved and prepared food, painted and played music. Unique among all other animals we really for our survival not on thick fur or powerful claws, but on our capability to develop and deploy technology.

Early flint spear heads were an improvement on sharp sticks and would later develop into metal heads, then bullets and ultimately into our present weapons of mass destruction. You can equally trace a direct line from this digitally produced information through mass printing, handwritten documents and ultimately back to those first cave paintings. Or take all the complexity of a modern symphony and unravel the trail leading back to simple flutes carved from hollow animal bones.

There has never once been a time when human technological evolution ceased in its quest to adapt and improve. Ironically this is often because the failings of an earlier technology become all too apparent. Our modern sewage systems and clean flushing toilets owe their origins to the success of the steam technology that drove the Industrial Revolution, thereby creating urban crowding and rampant disease from contaminated water supplies.

So we can be assured then that even if technology is indeed to blame for the current sorry state of affairs, it is still the only means we have to fix things again. Reverting back to some “Golden Age” before modern technology is a naive and dangerous idea; the solution lies in developing better eco-technologies (e.g. extend use of the internet and embrace high efficiency solar energy and low power consumption light emitting diodes).

The eco-technologies promise to be orders of magnitude less wasteful and waste creating and also help avoid much of the excessive travel that has become a feature of modern life. But they also offer possibilities to actually improve our lives and widen our horizons. That said, it’s almost certain that in the future we will find out that these technologies themselves fall short of all we hoped for, and what do you suppose we will then do about that?

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Solar Energy Climate Change, ecotechnology, Future, future technology, Global Warming, led lighting, Solar Energy, Solar Power, technology, the future

All of life here on this planet is made possible by the light and heat from the sun. Without our sun, we would not be here. There is an unlimited supply of home solar power. It has been there for several billion year and should continue for many billion more. It causes absolutely zero pollution and creates no carbon-dioxide greenhouse gases.

The question I put to you is “why are we not all using this free unlimited source of energy?” We have all been spoiled by relatively cheap energy derived from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. These are no longer as inexpensive as they once were and the carbon dioxide being release when we burn them in our power stations is undoubtedly leading to climate change.

Free solar energy has a number advantages over conventional fossil fuel sources of energy. The power from our sun is free and unlimited. Our only expense is that of collecting, using and storing this energy. These cost of recovery, whilst still high, are falling as new technology comes on line and it’s now becoming possible to generate much of the power for your own home from alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power.

There are two main methods for recovering solar energy for the home:

Flat-Plate Hot-Water Collectors: These can allow every home to provide free hot water heated directly by the sun. They are relatively inexpensive to buy and install and have a payback time that makes these an economical prospect in sunnier climes. They are often composed of a number of copper pipes running through an enclosed sealed panel. They are mounted on a south or south-west-facing wall or roof and will provide hot water dring most of the year, even on cloudy days.

Solar Electricity Generators: These are photo voltaic cells which convert sunlight directly into usable electricity. These cells have become the world’s fastest-growing energy technology with production doubling every two years. This increase in manufacturing capacity has caused the prices of these cells to fall to a level that is affordable for use in home home solar power generation.

Electricity, Hot Water, Solar Power Climate Change, Electricity, Flat Plate Collectors, Global Warming, Home Solar Power, Hot Water