Read an article yesterday that gave me extra encouragement to keep on counting on the sun.
Mr Paul Krugman, Economist & Columnist, has noticed a few telling arguments about the rising costs of energy from fossil fuels and the quickening downward trend of costs from renewable sources, like the sun we see every day - although sometimes through faith in what happens above the clouds.
I didn't need extra encouragement for myself as much as I did for the advancement of smart thinking in general. Whether one likes Mr Krugman's politics isn't important if you just pay attention to what he says.
In this case, he is citing information posted on a Seattle blog, written by a very intelligent student of advanced technology and what that can mean for us in the future, actually in the fairly near future.
I visited the blog mentioned in Krugman's article and was delighted with being reintroduced to Moore's Law, a tenet of science that seems to be currently manifesting in ways we can all understand and be happy about.
Clicking on the Solar Energy icon produced this list of blogs written on that subject, itself interesting.
Sometimes things do dovetail with actions one is considering, or in my case, doing.
Recently, I decided to triple the size of my solar panel array on my garage roof, since I was very pleased with the performance of the original PV system which was installed nearly 6 years ago.
The economics of the earlier system were gratifying, since the unit has increased its realtime value to me every time a power rate increase occurs. Now, the payout time has already decreased to about sixty five percent of what I initially expected.
So, with the Community Energy Challenge incentives available this year, plus improved technology & efficiency, the additional installation cost me less than the original -even at twice the capacity.
Now, that's arithmetic anyone can understand; essentially two for the price of one!
The new total PV capacity is expected to provide almost 70% of my typical electrical power needs each year. I like that, and so does Puget Power Energy, because they avoid the costs of installing more power production capacity.
The other things I like about this arrangement is that I own the Photovoltaic [PV] panels, inverters & mountings myself, and these things are mostly portable. But, left in place, the PV solar array adds to the value of my house, should I decide to sell it.
When you consider the simplicity of the PV system, the idea becomes even more appealing.
And, to think that only about 0.2% of the power needed nationally is currently produced by solar, means that a terrific upside potential is out there for anyone interested!
I hope a few folks will read this blog, check out the links given and make similar decisions themselves.
You know, PV technology was invented here, in the US, but most of the production is happening overseas in places like China -which wants to buy our coal.
Go figure!
I consider this an indirect investment in high tech with a huge upside potential, plus the ability to lock in earnings from the time of installation.
Instead of investing in a single corporation or stock, I'm investing in its broader, actual potential.
