Let The Sun Shine

I recently read that even astrologers disagree over the timing of the Age of Aquarius.  Whether, like The Fifth Dimension, you believe it has already started or think it is yet to come, the time to “let the sun shine” is already here.

In my mind, solar power has always been linked with pioneer types – folks building their own panels to generate energy for a tiny house or to live off the grid.  The reality, of course, is far different.  It has been more than thirty years since Jimmy Carter’s fireside chats.  The Arab oil embargo and restrictions on gas purchases are still clear in my mind.  I hadn’t remembered, however, that President Carter ordered the installation of the first solar panels on the White House in1977.  That’s not exactly a tiny home or off the grid!  In the early seventies, Mother Earth News reported that only six homes in North America were completely powered by solar energy.  These seemed to be DYI efforts.  At the turn of the century, about 47,000 U.S. homes used solar power.  That’s a great start, but still only about .5 percent of our nation’s homes.  With professional solar solutions available, one doesn’t need to know much about home solar power to take advantage of its benefits.  Hopefully state and federal financial incentives will spur more home owners to make the switch to solar power.