Eclipses Make Me Want to Switch to Solar Energy
Eclipses are opportunities to reimagine the sun as our main energy source
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Eclipses bewitch millions of people every time they happen. Regular people like me love the rare spectacle of it all. Photographers eat them up like candy. And astrologers love them for obvious reasons I know nothing about. There’s just something fascinating about celestial bodies that we just expect to be there at predictable points in time suddenly… disappearing? Vanishing for a brief moment in front of our eyes?
“The King of Day and Ruler of Night celebrate the renewal of their wedding vows with the sun and moon hanging in the sky. We call it an eclipse.” — Me.
Yeah, I used to romanticize eclipses. But this year eclipses have graced us with their presence four times despite our best efforts to kill the Earth quicker than expected thanks to manmade climate change. What’s that about? Maybe we don’t deserve eclipses.
Most of us don’t actively think about the sun, right? It’s always just been there, you know? But as eclipses have come and gone, I started thinking more about the sun and its power. I’m no expert, but I hope I can make you think about the sun a little more.
My first introduction to solar power came in the shape of a golden bird. In The Mysterious Cities of Gold, a cartoon that follows a crew in search of the lost Seven Cities of Gold, the main characters find technological wonders such as the Solaris, a solar-powered boat, and the Golden Condor — a giant, mechanical, bird-shaped jet that travels under the sun’s power alone.
As our electricity bills rise through the roof and environmental groups warn of a climate apocalypse, I think back to this cartoon of my childhood and wonder, “Can we do this? Now? Please?”
Though we’re nowhere near the technological wonders of the Cities of Gold, interest in solar energy increases every year. The latest report from BloombergNEF reveals that new large-scale solar investments totalled $66 billion in the first half of 2022, up 27% from the year before. We…
