2/4/13 – A New “Spin” on Solar

Today we had a really interesting discussion/lecture on solar energy.

Stephen showed us an awesome video from V3 Solar that put an entirely new spin on solar energy technology and photovoltaic panels. Check out the video we saw, if you are interested (see below).

 

I’m sure you might understand now on why I put the quotations around spin in my title after watching the video.

This idea, to me, is groundbreaking. It is crazy that you can use solar energy throughout the day instead of with a single flat panel.

In addition to our discussion on solar panels and the video I shared above, I learned that Salt Lake City used to have 146 miles of trolley lines powered by hydroelectric power from Big Cottonwood Canyon. ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SIX MILES! 

WOW. That, to me is astonishing. Where did it all go? Well, if you don’t know about it you should look up how Robert Moses, Firestone, General Motors, and Standard Oil conspired against the rail line industry to redesign cities around the automobile by building bridges that (by standards, codes, zoning, and regulations) barely made it impossible to have trolley/rail lines on them, and ripping up rail lines and replacing them with asphalt and implementing millions, if not billions, of buses into the public transportation system. There’s a little rant about what I know with that conspiracy…

Anyway, it is sad that we used to have so much amazing, even green infrastructure of rail lines and trolley lines and we threw it all away… Salt Lake City used to have one of the best integrated and developed rail line systems in the nation and now we are struggling to regain a foothold with our TRAX and Frontrunner construction.

Professor Goldsmith mentioned that there were twenty-two RED AIR days in January and the average temperature was 18 degrees Celsius. This is crazy talk. RED AIR days are days you are advised not to go outside… pretty much you are advised not to breathe because the air is so bad for you. That is what we are living in, commuting in, working in, and learning in. That is just crazy and it clearly shows a need to redesign our city away from the car, as well as more towards solar energy or at least some other form of clean (or cleaner) energy than coal-fired power plants.

The only other thing I’d like to add is how interesting it was to learn about carrying capacity and what natural capital is.

Natural capital is basically the natural “free” things in our environment that we can utilize to our benefit. Things such as harvesting solar energy (as described above with photovoltaic panels), using wind or cross-breezes in a way that cools the home, using rain water to irrigate your yard or for grey water use, and even in the social realm where we are all capital of our place and what we contribute is essential and should be harvested (think ideas, skills, and other things people have).