Will Solar Power Be Quickly Forgotten?

As they say, ‘History repeats itself’. I’ve been watching TV…not just in couch potatoe mode, but actually watching whats being said and done on television and in the media itself. I’m concerned that something that has occurred before in this country is about to repeat itself.

I’m old enough to remember when this country had issues with OPEC back in the 70’s. I remember high gas prices that created huge lines at gas stations, prices shooting through the roof (if you could even find gas) and people scrambling for an answer. When that happened almost 40 years ago, at that time, just as today, renewable energy solutions jumped to the forefront of the American consciousness. You started seeing magazine’s like Mother Earth’s News growing in popularity because of their thrifty suggestions on everyday living, including how to power your home. Just as today, solar power had a huge surge in popularity and solar power plants started becoming a viable solution for our energy needs. For instance, the Carrizo Photovoltaic Plant, around California Valley CA. From 1983 to 1994, the Carrizo plant was in full swing.

But, by the mid 90’s, oil prices did not rise as predicted, and it became fiscally useless to operate the plant because of the cost to create power was greater than the revenue generated by selling the power to the local utilities. Because of this, the 5.2 Megawatt powerplant was sold, and then dismantled. The PV panels were of such high quality that even today, the panels are still being resold throughout the world.

Now, oil has returned to a relatively normal price, things like gas prices have started coming back to somewhat normal prices, and I’ve noticed that there is less talk of renewable energy of all kinds, except for the occasional commercial of natural gas. 6 months ago, every other commercial was about renewable energy, there were all kinds of ‘Green’ shows and even full channels being added to television, people were again realizing that renewables are the answer.

Will the American people return quickly to their fossil fuel ways, back to our reliance on foreign oil that makes this entire country and its people open to manipulation by other countries? We tend to have a microwave attention span on a lot of things. If its not in our faces, we forget about it quickly. That can’t happen here. The country needs to push forward on its renewable energy research and development and not let our leaders forget that we NEED renewable energy so that we aren’t having this same problem for the next generation to deal with.