Renewable

July 12th, 2024

My wife and I took our grandson with us on a road trip last month. We went to visit family in Texas. With the exception of Illinois, we drove through states that would qualify as “red” politically. Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa tend to be conservative. The GPS took us on a number of back roads through these states, and we got to see a lot of wide-open spaces. Some of these states might have liberal-leaning urban areas, but the rural landscape was definitely patriotic in a traditional way. There was no shortage of American flags waving the breeze.

The areas we traversed were beautiful but often boring. A person can only look at so many corn and wheat fields. I did much of the driving, and I was ever alert for anything that was even remotely interesting. Once in a while, something unusual caught my eye. After some time, I noticed a pattern.

Over the years, my family and I have made this journey numerous times. I notice changes. I was surprised to see a number of solar arrays. Some were huge, covering entire fields, and others were small, private affairs. When we drove down to Texas a year ago, many of these solar electrical systems did not exist. They do now, and I wondered why.

As I mentioned earlier, we traveled through red states. These places are not hotbeds for radical environmentalism. I am betting that eco-warriors are few and far between. Whoever decided to install these solar panels did not do so because of leftwing political beliefs. They did it for hard, cold economic reasons. They crunched the numbers and determined that they could make or save money by using renewable energy. Whatever solar energy systems I saw were there because of the persuasive power of the almighty dollar.

This is amazing to me. We are at a tipping point where it is now more affordable to use renewable energy than to use fossil fuels. Politics play a role in how we produce energy, but that is being superseded by the considerations of efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Years ago, I used to go to annual the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. The fair takes place in Custer, Wisconsin in June. I didn’t go to the fair every year, and I haven’t gone for the last ten years or so. What has impressed me is how the fair has evolved over the years. Renewable energy used to the domain of visionaries and cranks. No more.

The first time I visited the fair was in the mid-90’s. It was a small, scruffy gathering of mostly hippies and serious tree huggers. I remember some guy giving a demonstration about how to build a functioning solar oven with only a large black box and plenty of aluminum foil. All the demonstrations were like that. The presenter was usually some person who lived off the grid and looked like he or she had stepped directly out of an issue of Mother Earth News. They came up with innovative ideas that actually worked but were often inefficient and definitely inconvenient.

About ten years later, I attended the fair again. It was larger and there was a more eclectic population. There was one building designated solely for solar energy exhibits. I was shocked to see people in the place wearing suits. Ah yes, now there were sales to be made and profits to be earned. There were slick, professional-looking displays. Companies from all over, including some guys from Germany, were showing their wares. Amateur hour was over.

I later purchased a system from a company that had been selling solar hot water heaters. This was back around 2005. The system is simple and efficient. I still have the solar panel on the roof of our house. The panel continues to heat up antifreeze inside of copper tubing and a small photovoltaic pump circulates the fluid into an insulated water heater in the basement. A heat exchanger transfers the warmth of the antifreeze to the water in the tank. This solar water heater works in tandem with our conventional gas water heater. As long as the sun is heating the water, the gas hot water heater never turns on. Our gas bills during the summer are almost negligible. It works.

After that, my wife and I considered installing a solar electric system. We decided against doing that because the startup costs were too high. The money we needed upfront was $20K, and we did not have that kind of cash laying around. Also, it would have been difficult to set up a solar panel array because our roof was already covered with skylights and Solo tubes.

That was then. This is now. The technology available for using solar energy was still crude in the mid-2000’s. Looking at that equipment now reminds me of Fred Flintstone. Advances in solar technology have been rapid. The gear required today to install a photovoltaic system is more efficient and cheaper than it was twenty years ago, and it is likely that trend will continue.

My observations from our road trip are anecdotal, and perhaps inaccurate. I can only tell you what I saw, and what I saw tells me that change is coming and it’s coming fast.