<\/p>\n As we approach the longest day (the best opportunity to harvest current sunlight) of the year (Solstice \u2013 June 21), Gail and I are able to say that it appears that we can continue our modestly complex life style with \u201cmodern conveniences\u201d (at least during the late spring and early summer months) by taking responsibility for our personal household energy needs, gathering our current sunlight and transforming it into the electrical energy we consume each day PLUS storing some of the excess energy produced for use on cloudy days and the upcoming shorter days of winter.<\/p>\n My days of unconsciously raping and pillaging our planet as an army of one are over. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. However, my self-awareness now includes knowledge of the irresponsible actions associated with my life style. Not so much what I do but how I do it. I have been living the life of Freddy the Freeloader \u2013 living off ancient sunlight \u2013 making withdrawals from the fossil fuel bank with no regard for the account balance \u2013 with no intention of ever paying it back \u2013 with no regard for how the resource got into the account in the first place. But now I realize, the energy companies of the world are issuing these subprime\u00a0mortgages on the planet\u00a0using a dwindling supply of natural capital as the basis of their loans, concerned only about collecting their \u201cprocessing\/extraction\u201d fees and profit. The energy companies of the world have zero concern about how or if these loans will ever be paid back (i.e. how or when the energy and previously sequestered carbon will be returned to mother Earth). But now I am aware of what is going on and perceive my past way of living is just as unethical as subprime mortgages based on phantom assets.<\/p>\n Any banker understands that perpetual withdrawal from an account with no periodic deposits is the path to insolvency. So now its time for me to pay my own way on this planet \u2013 to stop borrowing life sustaining energy from planet Earth – to become an adult and harvest the\u00a0energy needed to live my own live – \u00a0to stop bitching about the wanton consumption of coal by my local power company (did you know that on the Xcel Energy web site they proudly explain that at their Sherburne County, MN <\/span><\/a>coal-burning power generating plant they actually pick up, overturn and dump a railroad car full of coal and burn that amount of coal every three minutes. They don\u2019t mention that simultaneously they are also dumping tons of CO2 greenhouse gas into the atmosphere \u2013 along with other trace elements <\/span><\/a>found in the coal that are scattered to the wind – not to mention the consumption of fresh water. Previously I bought the energy companies coal-generated and natural gas-generated electrical power intellectualizing that I didn\u2019t have a choice. Until now.<\/p>\n By valuing the precious sunlight (energy) incident on our tiny urban plot of Earth\u2019s surface for which we are the caretaker, we can harvest the energy needed for our family and use Xcel Energy Company as the energy bank \u2013 not a role they want to play but they do so begrudgingly at the edict of the Colorado legislation. More on that in a later blog. But now Gail and I are making deposits into the Xcel Energy bank and therefore acquire the right to make energy withdrawals for our modest but modern life style.<\/p>\n Gail and I have found there is no requirement for us to go back to the stone age to be sustainable \u2013 or to return to the life style of our grandparents who did live more sustainably.<\/p>\n We recognize that this time of year is nearly optimum for harvesting current sunlight. Our energy needs are at a minimum. From a home heating perspective energy consumption is minimal. The outside temperature cools off in the evening to the 50s\/60s and with new EnergyStar windows throughout the home that minimize heat transfer between the inside and outside, we can keep the house cool naturally even when it reaches the high 80s- low 90s outside \u2013 without using the Air Conditioner. It doesn\u2019t cool down enough outside this time of year to require the furnace to come on and consume natural gas. However, as we took showers yesterday, the hot water heater came on and consumed natural gas \u2013 as it did for a load of laundry, and for a load of dishes in the dishwasher. More on how we plan to address the natural gas issue in a later blog. (Good News. There are viable non-carbon options)<\/p>\n So much for Phase 1 of our personal sustainable energy plan. The plan for Phase 2 is to install a geothermal heat pump that exchanges energy with mother Earth instead of fracing her to extract her non-renewable reserve of natural gas currently burned in our furnace to keep us warm at the northern latitudes.\u00a0\u00a0 Small electric motors (driven by power from the solar PV system) will be used to operate the heating \/ cooling system – but no fossil energy (i.e. natural gas) is required.<\/p>\n The plan for Phase 3 is to purchase either an all-electric car for local use or a plug-in hybrid car – ideally a hydrogen fueled (carbon-free) vehicle – Yes they are being developed in Germany and other countries. When will we in the US ever learn? When will we become responsible consumers and demand the production of sustainable products in the US? For example, I initially insisted on buying only solar panels produced in the US – unfortunately that was an exercise in futility – but that’s another story for a future blog.<\/p>\n The plan for Phase 4 is to continue to deal with the more difficult issue of food \u2013 sustainable production, transportation, processing and storage. My grandfather farmed in a sustainable manner \u2013 I still remember his draft horses. My boyhood friends who still farm are no longer using sustainable agricultural practices.<\/p>\n The plan for Phase 5 is to harvest and store current sunlight (accumulate real wealth) that can then be used \/ converted into carbon-less \/ carbon-neutral fuel for longer range transportation, manufacturing, and general business purposes for the sustainable consumer products I decide buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAnd we have power!\u201d Harvesting current sunlight is a hoot. Well folks, on June 14, 2011, another small portion of Earth\u2019s surface (386 sq ft of roof area on our home in Colorado) began harvesting current sunlight as Gail and I continue on our path seeking a more sustainable life style. The new solar photovoltaic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-sustainably","tag-sustainability-solar-pv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/SolarSystemDayTwo2.jpg\" "\\"SolarSystemDayTwo2\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n[Note: For those of you who are number crunchers, the Solar System performance of 46.3 kWh differs from the Xcel Production meter reading of 42 kWh because the solar system was activated for an hour or so for check-out purposes prior to Xcel installing their Production meter \u2013 so we \u201cdonated\u201d about 4.3 kWh of energy to the grid before Xcel started monitoring the system. ]<\/h6>\n
\n\u201cA small step taken is preferable to a large step intended.\u201d<\/p>\n