ENERGY
SolarPV-ize
SolarPV-ize
To Solar PV-ize means to
replace all other forms of energy production with solar PV (photovoltaic).
Extra! Extra!
Read all about it!
Solar PV (photovoltaic) panels
could power the entire world.
And they wouldn't be as expensive
nor require as many as you might think.
In the United States, the most energy hungry nation in the world,
the area of Solar PV panels needed to power the entire country would cover
an area about 100 miles x 100 miles square. That's 6.4 million square miles.
the area of Solar PV panels needed to power the entire country would cover
an area about 100 miles x 100 miles square. That's 6.4 million square miles.
6.4 million acres might sound like a lot to you, but consider these statistics:
- In 2020, straight-line hurricane-force winds flattened 10 million acres of crops in the State of Iowa alone.
- In 2020, wildfires burned 10 million acres in the U.S.
- The U.S. has over 6 times that amount of land (40 million acres) in lawns.
- The U.S. has almost 6 times that amount of land (36 million acres) planted in corn for ethanol.
- Surface coal mining in the U.S. has disturbed 1.25 times that amount. (This doesn't include the 500+ mountaintops removed for coal.)
Okay, we now know that
Solar PV can produce all the energy that the world requires.
It's a simple, practical, doable, affordable solution.
What we need to do now is to get busy installing it --- PRONTO!
Solar PV can produce all the energy that the world requires.
It's a simple, practical, doable, affordable solution.
What we need to do now is to get busy installing it --- PRONTO!
Solar PV has been called 'The Power of the People' because we can own and therefore control it.
That's why the giant energy corporations are trying to keep us from installing Solar PV. If we do, they know that it will put them out of business. They tell us that we need to build more Big-and-Centralized energy producing projects that only they, of course, can own and control --- big wind farms, nuclear power plants, natural gas plants, huge hydroelectric dams, huge concentrated solar power (CSP) farms. They're all for planting millions of acres of subsidized corn to make ethanol. They're all for fighting wars in order to 'secure' (steal) a supply of fossil fuels. And of course they're all for continuing to extract every last ounce of coal, oil, natural gas and uranium that Mother Earth has to offer. The IMF / International Monetary Fund reported that in 2021 alone taxpayers around the world subsidized the fossil fuel corporations to the tune of $11 million per minute!!
If Solar PV had been subsidized that much we probably would've had enough Solar PV to power all our energy needs years ago.
The giant energy corporations can't help themselves --- they're legal entities without souls, hearts, or brains.
Their only mandate is to make a profit. And they make huge profits by doing all of the above mentioned things.
That's why the giant energy corporations are trying to keep us from installing Solar PV. If we do, they know that it will put them out of business. They tell us that we need to build more Big-and-Centralized energy producing projects that only they, of course, can own and control --- big wind farms, nuclear power plants, natural gas plants, huge hydroelectric dams, huge concentrated solar power (CSP) farms. They're all for planting millions of acres of subsidized corn to make ethanol. They're all for fighting wars in order to 'secure' (steal) a supply of fossil fuels. And of course they're all for continuing to extract every last ounce of coal, oil, natural gas and uranium that Mother Earth has to offer. The IMF / International Monetary Fund reported that in 2021 alone taxpayers around the world subsidized the fossil fuel corporations to the tune of $11 million per minute!!
If Solar PV had been subsidized that much we probably would've had enough Solar PV to power all our energy needs years ago.
The giant energy corporations can't help themselves --- they're legal entities without souls, hearts, or brains.
Their only mandate is to make a profit. And they make huge profits by doing all of the above mentioned things.
When we do install the Solar PV, know that
the 100 miles x 100 miles square
would not be one big-and-centralized array of Solar PV panels
stuck in the middle of a desert somewhere.
That square would be broken up into millions of pieces
distributed locally in communities all across the world, on rooftops and in lots
near where the electricity they make is used.
The Solar PV panels would be distributed like the many leaves on a tree branch,
each contributing a little energy to feed the whole.
the 100 miles x 100 miles square
would not be one big-and-centralized array of Solar PV panels
stuck in the middle of a desert somewhere.
That square would be broken up into millions of pieces
distributed locally in communities all across the world, on rooftops and in lots
near where the electricity they make is used.
The Solar PV panels would be distributed like the many leaves on a tree branch,
each contributing a little energy to feed the whole.
Bill Nussey, creator of the Freeing Energy website,
explains this Small-and-Distributed way of doing energy
(what he calls Local energy)
in his TED Talk.
explains this Small-and-Distributed way of doing energy
(what he calls Local energy)
in his TED Talk.
Bill Nussey mentions here how Solar PV and Batteries are technologies
and how they're improving and getting cheaper as we speak.
I heard about a battery technology on his website that's so exciting ... it's called a gravity battery.
Energy Vault, a company that's building them, created this video explaining them.
and how they're improving and getting cheaper as we speak.
I heard about a battery technology on his website that's so exciting ... it's called a gravity battery.
Energy Vault, a company that's building them, created this video explaining them.
It seems this technology would best be used in the way shown in the video, where a gravity battery facility is built near a municipality of dense population. Then the municipality could be responsible for the maintenance of the facility, much like municipalities are responsible for operating and maintaining water, sanitation, and waste facilities. This would be another step toward ‘cooperatizing’ energy, that is, taking the control of energy out of the hands of private-for-profit corporations and putting it into the hands of local, for-the-public-good communities.
Another advantage to using gravity batteries is that they are mechanical in nature, not chemical ... therefore they don't require
the precious metals (lithium, cobalt, etc.) that most batteries use today. This would save those precious resources for use in more
mobile applications (phones, vehicles). And while we're talking precious metals, there's a lot of hubbub about the cruel working conditions surrounding the mining of cobalt in Africa. Well, that situation could be remedied by cooperitizing the whole mining operation. Let the people who work the mines own the business.
Another advantage to using gravity batteries is that they are mechanical in nature, not chemical ... therefore they don't require
the precious metals (lithium, cobalt, etc.) that most batteries use today. This would save those precious resources for use in more
mobile applications (phones, vehicles). And while we're talking precious metals, there's a lot of hubbub about the cruel working conditions surrounding the mining of cobalt in Africa. Well, that situation could be remedied by cooperitizing the whole mining operation. Let the people who work the mines own the business.
Just think of it --- because of Solar PV with Batteries we can have:
- an INEXHAUSTIBLE, limitless supply of clean, cheap energy
- no more oil spills
- no more wars fought to maintain control of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear resources
- no more expensive gas
- no need to burn any fuels (wood, coal, oil, gas, natural gas, uranium, biofuels)
- no need to use the problematic renewables (big wind farms, hydroelectric dams, concentrated solar power farms)
- no more fracking
- no more exploding pipelines
- no more leaking pipelines
- no more pipelines --- period
- no more strip mining or mountaintop removal for coal
- no more fossil fuel carbon emissions
- no more nuclear accidents and nuclear wastes
- no more dams that are so damaging to the life in and near rivers
- no more dams displacing people from their homes (80 million displaced so far -- that's the population of these cities combined: Berlin, Cairo, Hong Kong, Kolkata, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Tokyo)
- no more wind turbines onshore where they kill birds and bats and butterflies and more
- no more wind turbines located offshore where they harm and discombobulate sea life and shore birds
- no more expensive wind turbine motor repairs --- $1/4 million per minor repair. Solar panels can last 25-40 years requiring little or no maintenance
- no more 2 million pounds of concrete per wind turbine base (concrete emits large amounts of carbon during its production and curing process)
- no more high voltage transmission lines (and we could reclaim the materials in them, like the copper, etc.)
- no more wildfires caused by high voltage transmission lines.
- no more land being snatched (by eminent domain) from private owners in order to put up high voltage transmission lines
- no more grid vulnerable to terrorist attacks
- no more big-and-centralized power plants vulnerable to terrorist attacks
- no more cutting down our forests to provide wood for cooking or heat
- no more fresh water used by power plants (currently, over half of the fresh water used in America is used in this way)
- no more biofuels which require huge amounts of fossil fuel, water, toxic chemicals, and good farmland to produce
- the list could go on and on
Ever since humans learned to control fire, we've been thinking FUEL for our energy source.
More recently we've added RENEWABLES.
But both these ways of producing energy create serious problems:
More recently we've added RENEWABLES.
But both these ways of producing energy create serious problems:
- The FUEL based ones (wood, coal, oil, gas, natural gas, uranium) and
- The RENEWABLES (biofuels, hydroelectric dams, big wind turbine farms, concentrated solar power (CSP) farms.
Let's leave the terms FUEL and RENEWABLE out of our narrative about Energy.
Now that we have practical, affordable Solar PV with Batteries
we can start thinking of our energy source as
INEXHAUSTIBLE!.
Consider this:
In less than 1/4 of a minute.
Grandfather Sun provides as much energy to Mother Earth
as all of humanity uses in a day.
Or put another way:
In less than 45 minutes,
Grandfather Sun provides as much energy to Mother Earth
as all of humanity uses in a year.
Like I said --- INEXHAUSTIBLE!
Now that we have practical, affordable Solar PV with Batteries
we can start thinking of our energy source as
INEXHAUSTIBLE!.
Consider this:
In less than 1/4 of a minute.
Grandfather Sun provides as much energy to Mother Earth
as all of humanity uses in a day.
Or put another way:
In less than 45 minutes,
Grandfather Sun provides as much energy to Mother Earth
as all of humanity uses in a year.
Like I said --- INEXHAUSTIBLE!
Solar photovoltaic (Solar PV) technologies don't require any FUEL,
nor do they require anything that's RENEWABLE to make energy.
They make energy, simply and quietly, like the leaves of plants,
by harvesting the INEXHAUSTIBLE energy from Grandfather Sun.
nor do they require anything that's RENEWABLE to make energy.
They make energy, simply and quietly, like the leaves of plants,
by harvesting the INEXHAUSTIBLE energy from Grandfather Sun.
There's no longer a need to burn FUEL.
There's no longer a need for RENEWABLES.
We can have great abundance and experience amazing bounty without all the struggle, strife and stress associated with these
FUELS and RENEWABLES.
We can use the INEXHAUSTABLE energy from Grandfather Sun, and truly be like
"the lilies of the field ... they toil not.”
There's no longer a need for RENEWABLES.
We can have great abundance and experience amazing bounty without all the struggle, strife and stress associated with these
FUELS and RENEWABLES.
We can use the INEXHAUSTABLE energy from Grandfather Sun, and truly be like
"the lilies of the field ... they toil not.”
Thousands of years from now humans will probably look back on our time and say:
"Solar PV is probably the most important technology we humans have ever developed.
We were on a path of self-destruction because of our addiction to FUELS.
Solar PV delivered us from the harsh and destructive 'Age of FUEL'.
Solar PV ushered us into the kinder and gentler 'Age of Electricity.'
Without Solar PV we might not have lived to tell our tale.”
"Solar PV is probably the most important technology we humans have ever developed.
We were on a path of self-destruction because of our addiction to FUELS.
Solar PV delivered us from the harsh and destructive 'Age of FUEL'.
Solar PV ushered us into the kinder and gentler 'Age of Electricity.'
Without Solar PV we might not have lived to tell our tale.”
We now, like the plants, can harvest and store the INEXHAUSTIBLE, FREE energy from Grandfather Sun.
So what are we waiting for?
Let's SolarPV-ize!
So what are we waiting for?
Let's SolarPV-ize!