Examining the Truth Behind Solar Energy Advertisements
One of the best
of the advertisements for Solar Energy that
could have ever been invented has to be a
documentary movie called The Inconvenient
Truth which was produced by Lawrence Bender
and mainly featured the ideas of former Vice
President Al Gore. The movie was basically
about global warming and what Mr. Gore feels
will probably happen once global warming hits
us full force. One solution proposed by Mr.
Gore was installation of solar panels on roofs
of houses which, on the surface, sounds like
a very good idea that hits two birds with
one stone – you get free energy and
at the same time stop using fossil fuels.
Happy ending felt by one and all, except that
in reality, the situation is more complex
than that solution can solve – because
complete home solar energy systems cost at
least $200,000 to set up (inclusive of materials
and labor too.) How many Americans can get
$200,000 at short notice to set up a solar
energy system with?
One place where you can get pretty accurate
and true information about solar energy is
this URL (http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/index.html)
which is run by the California Solar Center.
They offer practical tips about how the ordinary
consumer can use solar energy everyday to
cut down on fuel bills. Although in some places
it is illegal to put up a clothesline since
it allegedly brings down property values,
admittedly a clothesline will help you cut
down on electricity consumption by not using
your spin dryer or clothes dryer to dry out
your clothes. The California Energy Commission
estimates that your average clothes dryer
uses up around $130 per year to dry your clothes
for you – compare that to the $14.99
you pay for a retractable clothesline plus
a bit of effort on your part to hang up the
clothes and you can see you can save up to
$110 per year by using solar energy for drying
your clothes. To someone like Mr. Gore who
has two houses and is a multi-millionaire,
$110 may not seem like much but to the average
person that money could go to other things
like health care insurance instead.
Strangely enough, though it is acknowledged
that solar energy is useful in California,
Californians in many planned communities have
taken a stand against this energy-saving practice.
In another state (Wisconsin), clotheslines
are generally acceptable so they take full
advantage of solar energy this way. Perhaps
in certain high-income US communities it is
more acceptable to purchase $200,000 home
solar energy systems for your home than to
simply put up a clothesline.
The website of the California Solar Center
is equally informative about other solar energy
issues, such as the difference between using
solar energy for passive solar architecture,
using solar energy in solar thermal systems,
and using solar energy through photovoltaic
systems. The author of that page tries to
show a short history of each type of solar
energy technology and their functions in the
community.The point is that you need to really
understand how the different aspects of solar
energy technology come into play to determine
whether it will be accepted by people or not.
The factors of functionality, cost, return
on investment, acceptability to the homeowner,
and acceptability to the community are just
some issues you need to understand to fully
grasp how the potential of solar energy technology
will be realized in the next 50 years.
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