"Solar Impulse” and Its More General Renewable Energy Lessons

Within this one story of today’s successful flight of the solar-powered airplane “Solar Impulse” lies essentially all the promise and challenge of renewable energy.

Solar energy is there for the taking, but the level of the incidence of solar power on the Earth, and the variability of that power, require us to go to certain lengths to make use of it.  The result in this quirky little space (solar aviation) is a plane that boasts as much upward-facing wing surface – and as little of everything else – as possible.  Even taking that concept to the max, and deploying the greatest use of materials science the early 21st Century can muster, the plane is capable of only about 50 MPH.  It’s just a reminder that we get lots of energy from the sun – 6000 times more every day than all 7 billion of us consume – yet bringing the costs down and the efficiencies up to the point where solar represents a large percentage of our overall energy output is no picnic.

Of course, that’s not a reason to not keep trying.  Solar and the other major forms of renewable energy are becoming less expensive and more efficient every month.

This suggests a way to integrate  a Happy Fathers’ Day word to my fellow dads, via a reminder: real men care about the quality of the planet they leave behind.