Solar Power: From Saving money to Saving the World

The term solar power instantly recalls images of a seventh grade science text book, solar cookers, and a futuristic fantasy.  This future is becoming reality. 

Solar power is taking the sun’s light and converting it into usable energy. Think of a plant using sunlight to grow.  The sun hits the Photovoltaic (PV), or solar panels, and disturbs electrons giving enough movement to be harnessed as an electrical current.  The amount and the intensity of the sun’s rays is directly linked to how much energy can be produced. 

Although the technology has been available for more than fifty years very few strides have been made, partly because the initiative and concern have been absent.  That is until now.  Recently, MIT professors have hit a long anticipated milestone where solar power can be stored.  Now solar power can be used when the sun goes down, if the proper amount of energy was stored during the sunlight hours.

 The advancements made coupled with the efforts to “go green,” rocketing electricity prices, and government incentives have many businesses and institutions looking for solar powered alternatives.  These alternatives reach far beyond the solar panels on houses, unpractical solar powered cars, and your old calculator from 1994.

Electrify your Underwire

Now woman, and the adventurous male, can sport the new Japanese made solar powered bra.  This bra will enable people to sunbath, absorb some rays, and keep their phones or iPods charged.  Maybe not chic, subtle, or stylish but for those who cannot afford to be without a phone, even while relaxing, it could prove invaluable.

Solar Cookers to Save Lives

On the more humanitarian front the classic solar cookers are making a revival.  In places like the Sudan the solar cooker is a coveted commodity.  Because of the dangers in the region, many women and children are forced to stay indoors for fear of their life.   With inexpensive solar cookers, the task of risking one’s life to gather wood so a family can cook is eliminated.

Artificial Self-sustaining Oasis?

The most ambitious solar powered project is called the Sahara Forest Project.  Sound like an oxymoron? Give it a couple years and it may be as real as jumbo shrimp.  The project’s goal is to use solar power to evaporate sea water creating cool air, pure water, and the possibility of naturally operating.  If this project succeeds it will turn an immeasurable amount of unusable land into fertile grounds.  This is piquing the interest of many African and Middle Eastern countries.

With its booming possibilities and growing necessity, solar power can change the world.  The ability to use a replenishing source of energy could be the most precious secret to the survival of people across the world. 

So, you’re shopping for a non-toxic household cleaner. While you’re at Target, you peruse the section of eco-friendly cleaners and gaze at all the pretty liquids and bottles like you normally do.  After a short bit, you reach for the same bottle as always. Feel that weight in your hands? All that liquid? Ya, that’s heavy. Imagine the incredible amount of fossil fuel burned in order to transport millions of those things.

Now, put down that filled bottle and take a step back. Look around for an empty spray bottle- it should look like this:

Pick that up. Weighs nothing, right? That means it’s easy to transport. Notice that tiny refill cartridge? That consumes 93% less plastic than the cleaners you normally reach for. You pour that into the empty bottle and mix it with water at home. And that empty spray bottle is refillable at least seven times.

So this revolutionary plant-based cleaner is out there, doing it’s job, saving the world and cleaning your home. However, the manufacturer is really close to pulling Essentials off the shelves- forever.

Why? Because it has no consumer support whatsoever. Perhaps the concept of buying an empty bottle isn’t rewarding enough for most people? There might be lots of reasons.

But the thing is, other manufacturers are watching Essentials under a microscope. If it tanks, those
companies are going to see that consumers aren’t actually buying green, they’re just talking about it.

In order to prevent this from happening, we need to get out and vote with our dollars. Pay the three bucks and tell Arm and Hammer and the rest of the manufacturers “Yes! We want green products!”. This is about more than just saving one single product, its about changing the way we think about the things we buy.

So what can you do? Take that bottle of Arm and Hammer Essentials and buy it. Buy four. Give them as gifts for the holidays. Tell your friends and family to do the same. Guess what, you’ve just gotten corporate America to take one step closer to truly respecting the environment.

Head to http://www.saveessentials.com for more information.

Texas company EEStor, Inc. is hard at work on their ultracapacitor energy storage device made from ceramics.  This new technology will be lighter, more powerful, longer lasting and easier on the environment than current large capacity battery technologies. The EEStor energy storage device is purported to charge within 5 minutes to an energy capacity great enough to move a car 500 miles.  This takes just about $9.00 in electricity, equivalent to around 45 cents for a gallon of gas!  .

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