The light at the end of summer warming my body as I sit outside at my picnic table eating my lunch makes me grateful. Sunlight is one of the biggest and best parts of my day. As I sit here and think about the difference that the sun makes in my life, I wonder why it has taken people so long to truly harness its power.

My neighbor is contemplating buying some solar panels and installing them himself. When I was a child this would have been unheard of. Nowadays the ability to create solar energy and power is easier and more accessible than ever before.

The ability to use solar energy to generate electricity is revolutionary. It is changing lives around the world. Poor, third world countries are using solar power to bring electricity to rural areas off the electrical power grid. They are able to pump water up from wells that irrigate barren lands and provide food for people.

In other countries, students are learning how to design and build homes that are completely solar powered. Contests are held each year to honor the best inventions of solar powered vehicles. The ability to have solar powered watches, radios, cell phones …. The list is endless. Anything that is powered by batteries, coal, gas, electricity, what have you, can one day be powered with the sun’s energy.

Harnessing this power will also give our country, the United States, energy independence. This could feasibly save lives. How many wars have been fought with at least a partial goal of gaining rights or power to energy sources like oil? If you listen to pundits, there has probably been at least one, if not more. We may never know if we are not in these positions of power to know so.

The potential of solar power and energy is phenomenal. It is exciting and life changing for more than just people, but for the earth itself. The ability to rely on a power source that is renewable can save our planet.
Unlike our other resources, such as oil and coal, sunlight is renewable and as far as we know, inexhaustible for the next million or so years. And the beauty of it all is that by using solar energy instead of gas powered vehicles, etc., we are also stopping many of the sources that erode our ozone layer.

So by using solar power, we are also saving solar power, if that makes sense.

Thirty years ago, AT&T predicted that one day nearly every home would contain a computer. I remember being astonished by this claim at the time. Now I would dare say that one day nearly every home will use some form of solar power.

So as I sit outside on a sunny day and soak up my Vitamin D, I do not take the warmth on my body for granted. I do not take the beautiful light streaming through my windows for granted. I know that sunlight is one of the richest gifts this planet has and I am hopeful that more and more people are realizing this, as well.

Author Bio: Frank Yocanis has been writing about solar energy for more than a decade. He is an expert on how solar power will enhance our world and our lives.

Category: Advice
Keywords: solar power arizona, solar energy phoenix, solar