The cheapest and dirtiest source of energy is coal.

That cheap energy is old sunlight in the form of decayed plants compressed over millions of years (a so called fossil fuel, coal).

The future cheap energy is eight minute old sunlight.  Estimates are that enough solar energy strikes the earth every day to provide the power the entire planet uses in a year.

Here is a link to the SOHO Satellite which monitors the sun.

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/bestofsoho.html

Warning: this solar observation can become very addicting.

The technology to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity already exists.  We have solar photovoltaics, like we install on the roofs of buildings, and CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) like utility companies are building.

Here are videos about both of these technologies:

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-2-v-5.html

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-2-v-108.html

As the scientist from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says in the video about CSP, the hope is that America will invest in solar energy the way that Spain and other European countries are.

If a country were looking for a way to invest in economic security and energy security while stimulating a sagging economy, there is no better use of our money than to move from the cheap old sunlight (coal) to the cheap (once the collectors are installed, it is close to free) new sunlight.

The enemy in the War for Endependence (energy independence that ends dependence on polluting fuels) is aggressively prosecuting the war.

The War for Endependence is a war against “cheap energy“.  Fossil fuels have been cheap energy for the last 150 years or so, and now with the short term dip in oil prices, they are even cheaper.

In July 2008, oil was $147.00 per barrel, and now in November it is about $50.00 per barrel.  Gasoline that was over $4.00 per gallon is less than $2.00 per gallon.  What seemed like a no brainer in July, driving fuel efficient vehicles, is again a quandary less than five months later.

The truth is that cheap energy is only cheap if we don’t count what the economists call “externalities”, things like greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.

Here is a video about the greenhouse gas externalities by Sir David Attenborough.

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-13-v-81.html

With a world wide economic downturn and a drop in fossil fuel prices, how easy it is for people, businesses and governments to get lulled into complacency.

George Washington and the Continental Army did not surrender or return to their farms when they lost early battles in the War for Independence. (more…)