Pollution-free sunshine is nation’s best power source
On June 20, we experienced the longest day of the year: summer solstice, when the sun showers our half of the world with bright and powerful rays of light.
Here in Texas, that means more sunny hours to go to a baseball game, hike or simply be outside with friends. It also serves as a reminder that today — and every day — we should soak up more of those rays of sunlight to power our communities with inexhaustible, pollution-free, solar energy.
It’s no secret that solar energy is taking off faster than ever before. Just in the United States, we have 43 times more solar today than we did 10 years ago — enough to meet the power needs of 8.7 million households.
So, we’re making progress. But of course, it hasn’t always been this way. For so long — since the Industrial Revolution, really — we’ve relied on the extraction of old and dirty forms of technically sun-powered energy: longdead plants and organic materials are pushed back into the earth and later pumped out as oil, gas, coal and other fossil fuels.
We know now that extracting and burning these fuels for energy not only harms our environment and our health, it threatens the climate and the stability of the planet.
The time has come to move past such finite, dirty and increasingly expensive resources. Certainly, we have the technical potential to directly use clean sunlight for nearly all our energy needs.
In fact, the United States alone could power itself 100 times over just with the solar power that shines within our borders. Studies show that just around 2 percent of our land mass could power the entire country with solar; panels on American rooftops alone could power nearly 40 percent of the country’s energy needs.
The good news is we’re reaching a tipping point for renewable energy in the U.S and across the world like we’ve never seen before. Ramping up our renewable goals is not a question of resources, science or technology; it is a question of political will. As more and more leaders in cities, companies, institutions and states commit to goals of using 100 percent renewable energy, we’ll only get there sooner and realize more of the benefits to Texas and our society.
Here in Austin, we applaud Mayor Dale Ross of Georgetown for committing to and achieving 100 percent renewable energy. We urge leaders like Mayor Adler of Austin to commit to joining him in that pledge — a goal we can and must achieve.
We need to continue to incentivize these renewable energy sources and push back against companies that try and take advantage of consumers realizing the benefits of solar installation. All across Texas, utilities like Oncor in North Texas are seeking complicated new policies designed specifically to steal the financial benefits that early adopters enjoy. It is up to us to let them know that we will not be deprived of enjoying the economic and financial windfalls associated with moving towards a better tomorrow.
This summer, we should remember this: Every minute of sunlight can be harnessed to create renewable energy to power our lives. We can and must meet this challenge. As we continue to use energy more efficiently, ramp up storage of renewable power and scale up our use of clean energy resources, we’ll make our air and water cleaner — and we’ll leave a legacy that we can be proud of.