Iron man did it with his Palladium Arc Reactor. In Avatar, The Resources Development Administration, after exhausting earth’s natural resources, plundered Pandora to obtain Unobtanium[1]. The Machines in The Matrix harvested humans to sustain themselves.
Do you see the common thread running through these stories?
No, we aren’t talking about “harvesting humans” or “plundering another planet”, those are ideas best left between their book covers. What we are talking about is humanity’s quest for the ultimate, never-ending energy source. While an element like Unobtanium maybe unobtainable in the near future, there is an energy resource far greater than all the above sources combined which can be harvested with available and established technologies.
This source? Our Sun.
All our energy needs would be satisfied – free energy for everyone.
The amount of solar energy falling on earth each day is sufficient to satisfy the world energy demand for the next 20 years[2]. If we could harness this energy, many of the world’s biggest problems will be solved. All our energy needs would be satisfied – free energy for everyone.
But it doesn’t just stop there.
All our water problems would be solved as well.
Imagine acres and acres of desalinating plants extracting water from the oceans, purifying it and sending it off to nearby cities.
There would be no need for mining.
With zero energy costs, the possibilities are limitless. We can make materials stronger, tougher, more compact and lighter than ever imaginable. And if we put our minds to it, we may someday be able to colonize other planets.
But with great power comes great responsibility[3] – and Nature knows that we cannot handle such power and the responsibility that comes with it.
If we really could harness such amounts of energy, plant life would become extinct. Ocean life would become extinct. The whole landscape of the earth would change in no time. We would be more machine and less human.So what did nature do to control us from destroying ourselves? It put a cap on the amount of energy that we can harness from the sun. Let’s take a look at the earth from space:
I think “Water” is a more appropriate name for our planet than “Earth”
With more than 80% of the earth covered with oceans, we only have 20% left to install our solar panels to tap solar energy. Of this 20%, most of the land is not suitable for photovoltaic power generation because of various factors such as land vegetation, water bodies, mountainous regions, etc. Top this off with an ever increasing population and housing and land costs it is becoming more and more un-viable to develop solar plants on land.
However, this has created a different kind of opportunity for us by giving us acres and acres of roof top space. If we could only just harness all the energy that is falling on open rooftops, then, even with panels working at 15% efficiency, all our energy needs are satisfied.
Do you think this is impractical? Well, don’t! Come visit Naandi and see the power of the sun setting into motion a wholly different way of living.
Naandi is powered by more than 850 kW of power from renewable energy alone, just by installing solar panels on all the rooftop surfaces of the community’s structures. This is because we understand the necessity.
We took the road less travelled. And that, we know, will make all the difference.
Life.On.A.Slow.Track
[1] What is Unobtanium? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium)
[2] RReDC Energy Tidbits (http://rredc.nrel.gov/tidbits.html)
[3] Stan Lee (Spiderman) – http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stan_Lee
[4] Earth from Space (http://www.billfrymire.com/blog/earth-from-space/)
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