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Sustaining a Strained Planet
Paul's thoughts
When it comes to sustainability, solar consultant Paul Shippee advises looking harder at our values and thinking with foresight into the next seven generations, to determine and plan just where we want ourselves, our grandchildren, and our country to go. "When people talk about sustainability," Shippee says, "my advice is to go deeper and think hard about just what is possible to sustain on our strained planet, and what it is that you want to sustain."
From Shippee's perspective, sustainability entails waking up rather than maintaining a business-as-usual lifestyle. This means focusing on cutting back rather than looking for ways to meet growing demands at whatever cost. "With all this talk about solar and renewable energy and using today's sun today," he says,
"people are tending to focus on the sexy side of energy, which is the supply side. More important, economically, is the less dramatic side, the dreary demand side, which means cutting back on usage of energy. In other words investments in saving energy –by insulating homes, by the efficiency of equipment and appliances and transportation- will return the investment more than twice as fast as trying to supply more energy, by whatever means, to meet thoughtless demand."
Shippee considers solar tax credits and rebates as necessary to level the playing field with heavily subsidized fossil fuels – oil, gas, and coal – as well as to defray the scary high front end solar equipment expense. He also considers the expense in solar as an investment, encouraging homeowners to lease them if necessary. "When utilizing solar heating, it is like buying all your fuel up-front for the next 20 years. In other words, the front end cost for the equipment is expensive, but after that the fuel is free, as long as the sun shines."
The trend today is toward solar electric power as opposed to solar heating, which is a highly efficient vehicle for the sun's renewable energy. According to Shippee, this is because PV is being pushed in advertising and public announcements to a higher degree. At the same time, however, the public only needs to see rising gasoline prices at the pump to begin seeking more than one alternative, even though this process may happen gradually. "The word is getting out about the mix of options between active and passive solar, and solar electric and thermal."
When asked about the Solar America Initiative's goal to make PV electricity cost competitive by 2015, Shippee responds that it is definitely a feasible goal. "Wind energy (a form of indirect solar) is already feasible, and when it is used to fuel car transportation, it is said to be able to deliver mobility at 50 cents per gallon of gas equivalent. Of course, 2015 depends on the political will of our leaders, and the people who elect them, more than anything else. Ronald Reagan stripped the solar collectors off the White House when he became president. What kind of message did this send to the public? And since the advent of the Reagan administration the average fuel mileage in America has been steadily declining. This in not only shameful but it set America back 20-30 years for developing renewable energy technology. We must remember this loss and these setbacks so as not to repeat them."
(The above questions answered by Paul from interview with CalFINDER )
Ask Paul He will answer you personally and the Q & A will be posted at a later date.
San Luis Valley - Colorado