Sitting here in the afternoon, basking in the warmth of the sun that has been shining into our living room, while it is -10C outside, got me thinking. AGAIN. This is getting dangerous, this thinking!
Solar energy is such a wonderful thing that needs to be further harnessed in the winter while it is available……..Or isn’t it all solar energy?
On a cold day, the electricity heats our place. Others use heating oil. We are planning to install a wood stove soon to curtail the use of our electric heaters. What is it all but stored solar energy?
Think about it. The trees capture solar energy through photosynthesis and store it. We dry the cut trees –in that same sun– then, burn them to release the energy stored within.
The heating oil, drawn from the ground, was at some point in the distant past, produced by the influence of the same sun, storing its energy.
The electricity, however it is produced, is originally a product of –solar energy.
Even the materials that produce power from nuclear energy were originally formed in a nuclear fusion reaction, where, but in either our sun or another star that had the potential for making them.
We humans have developed the ability to make all that energy more readily, conveniently, and cleanly available to more people, at a cost.
We lament not being able to use the sun’s energy directly. But we are, we all are! It’s just how we do it and how much money it costs us. This doesn’t mean to stop trying to devise other, simpler ways of capturing the energy produced by the sun. It’s just that nature has already dealt with the problem for many eons and has perfected mass storage systems.
