A few weeks ago I visited a presentation at the University of Maine at Fort Kent by a guest speaker, Mark Dixon. He was a very cheerful, motivational, and pasionate guy. He seemed to not only care for people, but the environment as well, which was the main topic for his presentation. Mark, and his 3 friends, traveled the United States, talking to people, and promoting the "go green" lifestyle.
Now, I am no prize; I probably waste more than I should; I use my computer far to much to conserve energy. I promote the "go green" lifestyle mostly in thought rather than action, not to say that I do not try though. I do keep my garbage down to less than the average person, and I turn lights off, neurotically. I have even adopted the "mellow yellow" principle in the bathroom.
In Mark's presentation there was one that that really cought my eye. Maybe it is because I am a techie, maybe it is because the idea just made sense. Either way, Mark presented the idea of an International Solar Highway. I know, sounds crazy right? Well, it might surprize you, but in the long run, this idea is far more practicle than not doing it. Allow me to explain.
There is no doubt that we will eventually exhaust all of earths oil, coal, natural gas, etc... However, Earth has one resource that is absolutely renewable until, well, the end of Earth itself. This resource is the sun... In the summer time, our tar and asfault roads generate loads of heat; enough to fry an egg on even. This heat all comes from the sund rays smacking down on the road. Countless miles of road each day are bombarded with endless energy from the sun. As stated by Mark Dixon, and this is by no means a direct quote, "If we replaced our roads with a solar highway, we could generate enough energy per year to supply Ameicans with three times their average consumption of energy." Think of all the energy Americans use per day! We happen to be the most wasteful nation in the world, and this proposed "Solar Highway" will supply us with enough energy in one year, to last us three more...
There is also one final note I would like to make about this energy. It is 100% clean and pure. It comes right from the sun itself. Now, I know some of you must be thinking, this is going to cost us tax payers a fortune.... Well, Yea. But I want to stop you there. Right now America is in an economic ressession. Money is a hard thing to come by, and a lot of money is going towards energy itself. As stated on solarhighwar.org, "As technology changes the wind and solar systems should be changed. However, the entire system should last 10 years but should pay for itself within 1.5 years." With this in mind I would like to beg the question, how can building a solar highway not be a good idea, if it will pay itself off in at least 1.5 years? The solar highway will not only provide a tripple fold excess in energy, but also provide thousands upon thousands of job to everybody involved. With such a large gain in energy and money to be made, America may even be able to begin paying off that growing national debt.
In my opinion, this "International Solar Highway" idea is the greatest idea I have heard in a long time. This is something I feel is worth investing in. Especially if we plan to continue living on a clean, atmosphere bound earth. If you would like to read more about the internation Super highway in very specific detain, visit http://www.solarhighway.org/. If you would like to read more about Mark Dixon and YERT, visit http://www.yert.com/.
Something about our current administration hit me the other day. Our current administration is pushing for radical change from the "Bush Era," and seems to be pushing forth with this change. The change started with the close of the Guantanamo Bay Prison, and while there are mixed feelings on this issue, it is undoubtedly still change. A green lifestyle is something different from the Bush Era, in fact it is different from most of American History, and I believe it to be a change we will see in the future. I am not one to accept full responsibility for global warming as a human, because global warming is undoubtedly a natural occurence; however, I am one to say that we, as humans, have had a negative impact on global warming, and have the power to correct our own actions in terms of global warming, which I feel the Solar Highway to be a big part of. My generation seems to be a green consious generation by nature, and this type of change, being the Solar Highway, is something I feel would spark interest in many bright young, and old, minds alike.
Now, I would like to clerify why I chose to present this topic as the "International Solar Highway," rather than just the Solar Highway. I did so to keep an open mind. I don't hate my neighbors, and in fact, most of them are pretty cool people. Obviously the Solar Highway would not start as an international highway, In fact, it may not even start as a National Highway. However, I feel that as our neibors see the reprocussions of having a road which will generate enough electricity to sustain its people three fold, the idea will spread, and eventually, connect. But an idea starts as a seed my friends, and it is up to the gardeners, us, to water that seed... No Pesticides Please.
Since I read the articles “The International Solar Highway” By: Shawn Deprey :: April 22, 2009
I have heard that the Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles program has been stopped. I have written to President Bill Clint regarding this issue. It has been approximately 10 days now and we have not received an answer. We would like to know why such a great and efficient vehicle program was stopped. The only thing that comes to mind is the government found this type of vehicle could be shelved, until a gas crunch then brought forth again.
As for the solar highways:
As written in the webpage http://www.solarhighway.org/ it is very feasible to build a solar highway. The concept of making a Solar Highway that produces energy from WIND in certain areas, Solar panels in others across our nation’s highways producing free electricity and creating a main power grid across the nation that would give anyone living or wanting to live close to the main power grid electricity.
This type of system would open up additional home building grounds where the obsolete grid as we know it stops. The stretch of highway between Arizona and Albuquerque New Mexico could flourish with homes and businesses. Or the stretch of interstate 25 from Santa Fe New Mexico to Colorado on and on and on.
Just think of areas that would be improved by the free solar highway. The rights of way on these highways are large enough to hold a main Electrical trunk line.
I firmly believe in the Solar Highway Project. Do not listen to the special interest groups that say your electric bill will go up. That is total nonsense unless the utility companies start ripping customers off.
The solar panel industry would start mass-producing solar panels. The wind generators would be mass-produced therefore the cost of these items should go down.
When the average homeowner can afford to tie his home onto grid and actually get a return for producing to much electricity it will be cheaper.
It Seems my makeshift captcha is taking care of those nasty little bots always spamming my blog, and now we can finally get to some real posting and idea sharing. What most interested me about this topic was the 3 fold in energy it will create... Because the US using A LOT of energy. Basically we could supply most of the world with clean, renewable energy. Think of the opportunities!!!
nice job
Shawn Deprey :: shawndeprey@gmail.com :: Comment :: June 2, 2009, 10:58 pm
Bill I am in total agreement with you. I do not understand how the government would not feel this is a good time to start actually moving towards alternative energy sources. I mean, all our energy came from the sun to begin with, so why not just tap into that FREE power that will be around until the end of earths time at least. This is a win win situation for everybody. But here is the kicker, you ready? Imagine living in a world where Al Gore is satisfied because we are no longer burning fossil fuels 0.0 That should be motivation enough to do this right? lol Obviously this is just a joke but you get my point. \"More energy than we can use\" Sounds pretty good to me.