297 - Solar Power

1. Solar Satellites Looks like I'm on a hippie run. Marijuana one day, solar power the next. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you how to make those hippie aprons the fat ones love to wear. Anyway, I want to make it clear that I don't smoke weed, I just think I should be free to do so if I choose. I'm also not that sure about the truth of manmade global warming, even though I'm leaning pretty hard in that direction. I just think solar power is cool. Gathering solar power in space is really cool.

2. Land Area Requirements I've heard a lot about how alternative sources of energy could never produce enough power to compete with fossil fuels. These people have done the math though, and it looks entirely possible using only solar power. Add in wind and tide power and we got a thing going on.

3. Organic Of course, building these giant solar arrays would be pretty expensive. But, researchers in New Zealand have developed a solar cell they say can be produced for one tenth of the cost of the current technology. It doesn't seem to be available to the public yet, but hopes are high for the near future.

4. DIY Solar If you can't wait for the organic solution, you can build a simple solar setup to run your TV of whatever for around $300 bucks using materials mostly available at your local auto parts store.

5. Infinity Miles Per Gallon Or, if you are totally awesome, you can convince a high school to give you a small staff of free labor that can build a really cool solar car for you.