Anidada ([info]anidada) wrote,
@ 2007-07-31 11:17:00
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Current mood: impressed
Entry tags:sustainable living

Solar is cool. So to speak.
A remote Indian village that runs on solar power, and the free college where people learn how to make (among other things) solar-powered devices.

If they can do it, why aren't we? There should be solar panels on every rooftop, dammit. Considering how cheap they are, now -- a solar heating system for our house would cost half what our gas furnace cost to install -- that should be the first option considered, you'd think...


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[info]otheronetruegod
2007-07-31 03:56 pm UTC (link)
What works for a remote Indian village doesn't necessarily scale.

Anything done on a massive scale takes time. Until recently, solar panels took more energy to create than they could produce in their entire lifetime. That's not a wise investment, by any estimation. This is no longer the case (and hasn't been for coming up on a decade), but they still take a fair amount of energy to produce, and the benefits are subject to weather, so someplace like Toronto would be fine for the summer, perhaps, but the winter would be less good.

I think that over the next 50 years we'll see a lot more solar collecting things on buildings -- on the roof, using electricity producing glass, and more. Additionally, adding greenspace to the tops of buildings increases insulation and decreases cooling costs in the summer.

In the end, there isn't a silver bullet (and, if there was, it sure as hell wouldn't be solar). It's a collection of things that work together: solar, wind, waves and nuclear, as well as improved insulation and heating/cooling methods, and changes to the way that companies provide things like heating and cooling that will, together, make things more green.

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