SOLAR POWER: Did it really take this long?

"I'd put my money on solar energy," said Thomas Edison. This was over one hundred years ago. Thomas Edison was a smart man; he was the first true inventor, one who not only was smart enough to figure out new ideas, but devised and created ideas that sold to millions and made many people a lot of money. Back in those days, he couldn't conceive ever constructing something that could harness energy from the sun. He was smart enough to know, however, how powerful the sun is, and that it can do a bit more than bring May flowers.

We've dilly-dallyed, we've dabbled, we've even had success. There is probably a surprisingly small amount of people who actually run all of their electricty from solar power, and even in this "green" age, it's just now beginning to catch on.

Is it not a no-brainer that it is MUCH cheaper to install solar panels than to go extending the electrical grid? Solarenergy.org had an interesting statistic: Within 15 years, renewable energy could generate enough electricity to power 40 million homes and offset 70 days of oil imports.

No one is even thinking about this. I'm under the opinion that many folks will overlook this amazing alternative for many, many more years. With their home and land bought and paid for, and their home itself running off of solar electricity, one could breeze by, year after year, paying nothing but property taxes and food and water bills, thereby boosting the economy in more commercial areas and giving unambitious folks more jobs that they've been wanting for so long now.

How much more coal can we burn? What's so good about natural gas? There's certainly nothing good about it. I wonder how dumb we look to our own atmosphere.

Although humans are the smartest species, our history shows a steady climb to excellence; Rome wasn't built in a day, and that's fine. The sun, however, rises every morning with a heap of heat and an amount of ultraviolet light that prohibits us from actually looking at it, and if there are other unknown planets in close residence to the sun, I wouldn't be surprised to see them taking advantage of it electrically. Every day you watch it come up, and then you watch it go down. You know that it's a light that never goes out, and you know it grows your crops.

The sun is the original God. The first man saw the sun and saw everlasting life, and worshipped it. There were no iPods, computers, day jobs, wives, children, money, insurance policies, or diseases to distract him. There was only the sun, and everything he knew was under it. Omniprescent and rich, it was hard for him to disregard it as being The Creator, or All-That-Creates.

For a little investment, a PV Solar system, equipped with panels, charge controllers, batteries and inverters can run anyone's home. In this age of technology, it would take a significant amount of wattage to accomodate the average American's electrical needs. Chargers, computers plugged in all day, luminant lights; they all need their share.

If we all learn to SIMPLIFY SIMPLIFY SIMPLIFY, then our solar systems will be a lot cheaper. The point is, that the government has had everyone by the balls for far too long. There is so much freedom still in this country. It may look shadowy and far too controlled, but one must realize effective alternatives, and just rise above it. The question will eventually be: "Shall I contribute to world pollution and overall ecological negligence by signing with the power company to send their concentrated electricity to us through those ugly wires? OR, shall I save up a little money and purchase a perfectly adequate solar system that coexists with the sun that rises, takes it's hand-outs all the live long day, and then harnesses it after it sets?"

American Idols Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai (LA Times) just may be what it will take to get the electrical message across to so many television-drenched Americans.