Eclipsing Pollutants

While going down the highway, the other day, I saw something that renewed a tiny fraction of my faith in humanity. Mounted on the side of a power pole was a solar panel, hooked up to augment the supply of power. When I saw that, I literally jumped for joy. Well, as much as one is able to inside a cramped van.

Why does this partially renew my faith in humanity? It means we are FINALLY taking measures to help ourselves by helping the planet as well as the economy. By using this solar panel we are cutting down on how much energy we need to produce through destructive means. That means energy will not only cost less money but won't produce as much pollution.

Imagine if all power poles for all power lines had a solar panel attached to them? During the day, we might not even have to run the power plants! Using power in the daytime might not even cost you money. If they give you a solar panel to set up in your yard to supplement even more power, they might actually have to pay YOU for the power that they will be storing and sending back along the grid at night.

Just think about that for a moment. Imagine the electric bill you get every month. See all of that money you spend on something as essential as electricity. Now imagine that amount lowering, and lowering, and lowering as more and more solar panels are installed. The bill gets lower and lower and lower. You see one of the digits fall off, bringing the bill lower than it was even when you first started paying it. Lower, and lower, we're down to single digits! You can set your bill to auto-pay and not even notice the difference on your credit card! And it keeps getting lower! Finally it hits zero. You think you're set. You never have to open that bill ever again. Now you are offered a solar panel of your own. You get it set up and start checking that energy bill again, and you notice you are no longer receiving an energy bill. You are now receiving an energy check.

Wouldn't that be a wonderful feeling? They are paying YOU for the service! Seems like a dream come true for me. Unfortunately we're not there yet, but we're getting there. Slowly but surely, we're getting there. And we're saving the environment at the same time by not using the power plants as much.

Saving money and saving the planet in one fell swoop. Can't get much better than that.