Solar Power--- Missonary Position

Almost two months have past and there you go, I was sucked into the fall so much that I lost the posting gene. But today the clouds have moved in and covered the sun, the one that really is only out for some paltry 8 hours, most of the time so low on the horizon that it never really gets my solar cells fully powered. I speak figuratively and literally---as the photovoltaic system is having a hard time just providing for a few lights, a laptop and the fancy 12 volt freezer we purchased to be able to preserve food off grid.

It, the freezer, is a very cool device and really just needs the power of the sun to operate, but this time of year the 700 watt system can barely keep up. What the experience is teaching me is solar power is not all it is rumored to be. Now, it is not that I have not know this before because we did live off grid for 13 years. But in truth, if the average yahoo had to live without grid power it would be a very different world.



This little experiment, 18 years of it, definitely lays it all on the line with all the banter about, "We just have to turn to solar!" nonsense we hear. The idea of powering up a car battery with solar panels is a joke, a cruel one at that. The amount of panels it would need to charge my auto, even a tiny one, would cover my entire property and then would only send me on a half mile trip.

Then again, if we were to compare a solar powered life to one of, say 1890, it would seem a great luxury. Still, a one kilowatt system probably cost a tidy $15,000 or so. There are just some things here that don't add up, if you read my lips.

But, I will continue to explore, suck it up, mouth off, go into rants, generally have a good time even though I suspect, more so every day, that there are some changes in the air. Hell, the solar power is free---outside the initial costs. Having a little Rebel Reserve this evening to get me in that Deliverance mood.