ICAATS

How long has solar power been around? Well, let’s see, historically speaking, it’s been available since…well…since before the creation of the human race. According to historical records, mankind figured out how to begin to take advantage of this power source. Someone discovered during the 7th century B. C. how to take a glass-like substance, and concentrate the sun’s rays on an object to start a fire. Then, in the 2nd and 3rd century B. C. the Romans and Greeks found they could focus sunlight using the reflective properties of various objects to create heat for lighting their torches. Not long after that, its potential destructive nature was exploited when the Greeks focused sunlight on their metal shields and set fire to Roman ships.

Although our earliest ancestors clearly learned to use the power of the sun, what they burned with the fires they created with a “sun-spark” was wood. Wood as a fuel has been around for more than a millennia. Fortunately for those using it as a source of heat, it was readily available. Unfortunately, for the forests necessary to maintain the earth’s climates, it was readily available, and has been significantly diminished.

Increasing unavailability of wood for heat did, however, bring about the discovery of passive solar energy between the 1st and 4th century A. D. Both the Greeks and Romans began using passive solar energy by putting in large south facing windows in bathhouses, public buildings and sunrooms of homes.

The ancestors of the Pueblo people in North American also created a bit of passive solar history when, somewhere around 1200 A. D. they built south-facing cliff dwellings so they could take advantage of the heat from the winter sun.

Despite its availability in many locations, and some knowledge of how to capture its benefits for heating, sufficient knowledge to truly capture the sun’s benefits for energy remained largely a mystery for centuries.

Fossil fuels…coal, oil, and natural gas…on the other hand, have, like wood, been shown to have been used for heat and light going back as far as the caveman, with evidence that the Romans burned coal in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. However, since fossil fuels weren’t as readily available as wood, their initial usage was limited. There is also evidence that in America, the Hopi Indians found and burned coal for cooking, heating and pottery-making around 1300.

During the Industrial Revolution, coal moved into the forefront in production of energy. James Watt invented the steam engine, and powered it with steam. The steam was created by burning coal, thereafter making coal the energy-creation machine. Coal, then ultimately became one of the major symbols of American power.

It wasn’t until the 1860’s that active solar energy was really taken from theory to practical application. A solar-powered steam engine was invented by a French mathematician named August Mouchet. He and his assistant created the first solar steam-powered plant using parabolic dish collectors. This method of creating solar energy is still used today. But solar energy still did not rise to the forefront at that time because coal-powered steam was now readily available. As a result, Professor Mouchet’s solar-powered steam engine was steam-rolled by its coal-generated energy counterpart, and left in the dust.

And in many ways, solar power has been remained behind…left in a corner to collect dust. Even today, with fossil fuels providing more than 85% of all the energy used in the Unites States, solar power has had a very difficult time getting a foothold and establishing a position as a major source of energy.

Not until the 1970’s was solar, or other renewable energy, ever truly considered a viable option to fossil fuels. When oil prices rose to unprecedented levels, demand far exceeded supply and created long lines at gas stations. For the first time, fully realizing the dependency the United States had on foreign oil supplies, the federal government, under the administration of Jimmy Carter, created tax credits to help develop alternative energy sources.

With political pressure at its best, lobbying efforts and vast power were exerted to stem the credits, and limit the conditions for development of alternative energy sources. One method of doing that was to stymie entrepreneurial efforts that might have quickly catapulted solar energy. Small companies and entrepreneurs already had existing research and methods ready for immediately implementing solar energy in individual home, small business, and community application. Instead, available research and development dollars were channeled into large universities and organizations, where slow and methodical modeling began for large utility industrial models.

With fossil fuel industry intervention, renewable energy resources in a decentralized environment have not been deemed an appropriate path…despite all indications that this is its most viable application. Instead, reaching parity with fossil fuel energy appears to be the most that any legislation is designed, or will be designed, to do.

Despite the rough beginning and continuing obstacles that solar energy has experienced, that it is a viable alternative to fossil fuel is no longer debatable…with or without government support. Driven to produce more fossil fuel energy quickly and more profitably, companies within these industries have taken shortcuts and incurred the consequences. The risks have resulted in unacceptable loss, both in the loss of human lives, and horrendous damage to the environment. Technological advances are pushing the production of solar energy more clearly into the forefront now, making it cheaper and more readily available. With the lack of similar potential to destroy the environment, solar and other renewable energy sources will drive production up and costs down. At this point, directing solar energy resource and development tax dollars toward the creation of large, profitable utility companies may be all fossil fuel lobbyists are able to do…if…they are able to accomplish even that.

There is no myth…nor real mystery… to global warming. It’s here. It’s now, and it’s everywhere. It can be seen by the environmentalist and the man on the street, both in the climate changes, and in the environmental damage created by our lust for fossil fuel energy. Whatever the debate, breathing clean air and protecting the Earth for generations to come requires all of us to stay focused on the full development of solar and other renewable energy sources as our best…and only really viable option…for our future.