Sunshine

I’ve been blogging since March, with no agenda other than to just document my thoughts at the time. One of the things that surfaced was my love of nature and how maddening it is to watch us abuse it, don’t get me wrong I’m no Eco-Warrior; just a concerned citizen.

Some of my posts recorded my learnings of many things green, some regarding energy, some regarding ecology and the plight of the worlds animals, some even rejoicing the amazing properties of Oyster mushrooms! Through this process of investigating alternative energy sources I happened across Roberts Blog (see Blogroll), this guy knows his onions!

Robert owns a company that produces solar heating systems and is fiercely passionate about his company and more importantly the planet and it’s ecology, he’s also a damn fine writer and his short stories are wickedly funny! Anyway, after reading this guys blog for a few months I feel far more knowledgeable on green issues and the other day It dawned on me….. This guy has systematically gone through all the methods of producing energy for human consumption, and given the pro’s and con’s in a balanced and objective manner.

I’ll admit at first I thought he’s plugging his business in a round about way, but I was wrong, this guys has thought about this problem and chosen solar power because it’s by far the best alternative. Here is a very short list of the alternative renewable energy sources along with their pro’s and con’s.

1. Wind Turbines – Pro’s: zero pollution, no greenhouse gasses, farming is not affected, site costs are low. Con’s: Wind is unpredictable and thus renders the process inefficient and  incapable of supporting communities solely.
2. Hydroelectric – Pro’s: Easily managed capacity, renewable energy, no primary pollution. Con’s: Dams cause a lot of damage to the surrounding ecology, reduce water supply down river, dams burst and can cause floods, flooding forests will cause greenhouse gasses through rotting process.
3. Geothermal – Pro’s : Cheap, high capacity, no pollution if performed correctly, zero emissions. Con’s: Locations are limited, geothermal stations can cause instability….Earthquakes!
4. Biomass – Pro’s : Biomass is abundant, burns organic by-products of agriculture, easy transition to veggie oil or bio-diesels. Con’s: Combustion of carbon based matter causes air pollution, production process uses more energy than it produces = net loss (no point), limited land – required to produce food for increasing populations, not enough land on the planet to meet current demands.
5. Tidal – Pro’s: Once dam is built it’s free energy, easy to manage capacity due to known tide times, renewable – uses gravity. Con’s: Costs of making dam are too expensive, only produce energy for 10 hours approx, affects the ecology of the sea and surrounding wildlife who rely on tidal activity for food.
6. Solar – Pro’s: No fuel costs, renewable, no pollution, no combustion, multiple applications, very efficient, technology is more affordable, zero greenhouse gasses, portable. Con’s: Currently more expensive than grid electricity, no night-time energy production, requires storage for off the grid applications.

Now you could, and many do, argue the toss on this subject, debating all the pro’s and con’s but why bother when nature has already given us the answer. Like I said it dawned on me, if you pardon the pun!

Natures most successful producers of energy (trees and plants) have chosen solar power as the preferred source of renewable energy; and who are we to argue with nature.  Hundreds of millions of years of evolution has gone into perfecting this choice, I’m convinced not by science but by nature, that this is the best choice available to us now.

Robert, I thank you for helping me get to this place, this understanding and I thank nature for convincing me that Sun is our best hope for clean energy.

Respect and Peace!

@dam