Gideon Polya, “Solar energy & the end of war. US Balloon technology to slash solar energy cost 90% by 2010”, MWC News, 10 December 2007.
Solar energy & the end of war. US Balloon technology to slash solar energy cost 90% by 2010
The End of War has been a dream of civilized humanity for centuries and could have been realized at the beginning of this 21st century but for the Racist Bush-ites, the warmongering Zionists, the egregiously dishonest and violent Bush Administration and warmongering Bush allies around the world.
Total post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories now stand at about 5-8 million. There has been a horrendous human cost of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 1.5-2 million and 3-6 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.2 million, respectively; and refugees total 7 million, 4.5 million and 4 million, respectively) (updated figures from MWC News).
If there is an ostensibly “rational” reason for the Bush Wars it is the strategic importance of the Middle East in terms of oil and global hegemony. This explanation has been argued cogently by outstanding anti-war humanitarian Professor Noam Chomsky (from 63-Nobel- Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) in an article entitled “Imminent Crises: Threats and Opportunities” in which he says of the Middle East : “the huge energy resources of the region were recognized by Washington sixty years ago as a “stupendous source of strategic power,” the “strategically most important area of the world,” and “one of the greatest material prizes in world history.”[reference] 1 Control over this stupendous prize has been a primary goal of U.S. policy ever since, and threats to it have naturally aroused enormous concern.”
However what happens to “strategic power” when there is no longer any sensible economic reason for burning fossil fuels of any kind? Solar energy incident on the Earth each day is about 10,000 times Man’s current daily energy needs. What happens to US global hegemony and US global violence when solar energy can be tapped for 10% of current cost, when solar energy becomes cheaper than burning fossil fuels?
In short, the consequence of extremely cheap solar energy is THE END OF WAR – and that prospect is now looming through fantastic new California solar energy balloon technology that is set to slash the cost of solar energy by 90% by 2010 (see: here)
The high cost of photovoltaic (PV) cell -based solar energy comes from the cost of installation (the cost of land for solar collection and the cost of materials - especially because of the short supply of refined silicon).
The key element of the Californian Cool Earth balloon technology is a very cheap, inflatable balloon with a thin reflecting surface that focuses sunlight on a PV cell. Cool Earth says each balloon measures two meters (6.5 feet) in diameter (see: here ) . With low maintenance and replacement costs, the system is expected to reduce the cost of solar energy over 90% from the current price of around $4,000 per kilowatt of installed solar capacity to levels where is competes directly with fossil fuel-based energy sources. The technology should be very attractive to farmers who will be able to "farm" electricity from solar collection in addition to their crops. The balloons are off the ground and do not significantly shade the crops beneath.
The current total install cost for solar energy is running at about $4,000 per kilowatt so a projected “29 cents per watt” ($290 per kilowatt) is an over 90% reduction in solar energy install cost. The install cost of cost of a new coal-fired steam-electric plant is about $1,775 per kilowatt (see: here).
Mongabay on July 2007 (see: here) quotes CoolEarth thus: “"Solar farms generate energy inexpensively—and generate profit for their operators. We are confident that our minimum-material design and use of commodity materials will cut the cost of photovoltaic electricity in a 1 megawatt installation to 29 cents per watt by 2010. At that price, solar farming is a highly attractive option for land-holders. We can then expect free-market forces to drive the spread of clean solar-energy generation" … and the END OF WAR.
Is it possible that reason will prevail over the racism, xenophobia, vested interest, irrational violence and lies of the Racist Bush-ites and Racist Zionists?
This we have recently seen that Iran may have escaped a Bush-ite- and Zionist-threatened conventional or nuclear holocaust through the finding of 16 US intelligence organizations that Iran had given up notions of making a nuclear bomb back in 2003.According to outstanding, pro-Peace, Israeli humanitarian Uri Avnery (see: “How they stole the bomb from us”), “A real catastrophe: the US Intelligence Community, comprising 16 different agencies, reached a unanimous verdict: alredy in 2003 the Iranians terminated their efforts to produce a nuclear bomb, and they have not resumed them since … Gone is the excuse for an American military attack on Iran, the dream of the Israeli Government and the neocons.”
However the plunging cost of solar energy has profoundly wider implications beyond cessation of War in the Middle East – it may save the whole Planet. While US invasion, war and occupation policies have devastated Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, America is the world’s #1 greenhouse gas polluter and one of the world’s highest annual per capita greenhouse gas polluters. Bush refuses to sign Kyoto or to constrain American greenhouse gas pollution – he is the world’s #1 climate criminal in addition to being the world’s #1 war criminal and the world’s #1 terrorist and his policies are threatening the Planet with climate genocide (see “US nuclear, greenhouse & poverty threats” ).
The latest Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Synthesis Report (see: “Summary of the Summary of the 2007 IPCC AR4 Synthesis Report”) makes it clear that the World has to act urgently to prevent a mounting global warming disaster. The dramatic decrease in the cost of solar energy gives us hope that science, technology and economics will now succeed in saving the Planet where selfish, irresponsible, dishonest, partisan Bush-ite politicians have failed.