Tag Archive for Solar

Not a Contradiction–Just an Enlightened Bottom Line

Here’s a bit of seeming contradiction that I think is a brilliant idea:  the Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels on its roof.  It will save them money.  Even better, it’s part of Kentucky’s attempt to replace coal as its primary source of energy.  Read about this at the USA Today article.

In fact, the coal industry is dwindling, not just out of environmental concerns, but because of corporations’ bottom lines. Coal is too expensive to produce when alternative energy sources are available to cash in on.

Coal miners are losing jobs, and families are suffering as a result of that.  They need to be retrained and hired in the energy jobs of the future, not kept in unhealthy,  unsafe underground mines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture those Important Family Activities

With upcoming family activities–graduation, wedding, vacation trips–you may be looking for new camera equipment. Consider a bag that has a built-in solar charger. Both it and rechargeable batteries are convenient for you and healthy for the Earth.

 

Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

Harnessing the Sun, Morocco Style

I’d like to see us cut our electric bill the way Morocco plans to do it.  Taking advantage of the 3,000 hours of sun they get each year, they’re building a set of four linked solar plants the size of 35 soccer fields.  Along with hydro and wind, the complex will serve the electric needs of half the country’s population.  Phase 1, opening this month, will bring power to 1.1 million people.  Read more about this exciting venture at the Guardian.com site.

CTt52JZU8AEu2aN.jpg

 

 

 

A Powerful, Sunny White House

Solar panels on the White House roof 35+ years ago?  Yes, they were there.  President Jimmy Carter installed them in June of 1979 at a cost of a mere $28,000 (a very small amount in the governmental budget).  In addition to saving on utility bills, it was a symbol of our government’s attempt at getting our country away from depending so much on foreign oil.

President Ronald Reagan had the panels removed.  He wanted to get rid of solar tax credits.  Later, when it was suggested that they be put back up again, his press secretary Dale Petroskey said it would cost too much.

At least, though, in 2006 one panel found an appropriate home–at the Carter Library in Atlanta.

Happily, in 2013 President Obama had solar panels reinstalled.

No commentary from me…just a bit of sometimes-sunny American history.

 

 

See the Light

Do you light your garden or pathway?  Solar powered lights save energy AND can be used for light inside the house during a power outage.

Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-book seller.]

More than a Flight of Fancy!

Have you been following the Solar Impulse?  The first solar-only powered airplane to attempt a flight around the world.  The pilots say they are “2 men who want to move the world.”  It’s an exciting adventure.  Go to http://www.solarimpulse.com/ to follow their flight in real time, read their travel log, find out what got them started–all sorts of fascinating information in words and pictures.

These guys are turning their flight of fancy into an actual flight that will benefit both the earth and mankind.