A technological breakthrough by MIT scientists announced last week could turn solar electricity into a cheap and viable form of powering up all our electricity needs on the cheap without even the need for a power grid.
Researchers supposedly found a new approach to storing the electricity when the sun is not shining, thus overcoming the last great obstacle to cheap solar power. This is course, means that sunny places will have ample electricity to fuel their air conditioning, cars, TVs and every other thing that they could possibly need. There will then presumably be a lot less demand for oil and hydro electric electricity which are two things that Canada exports. Sunny places will become all the more desirable because not only are they sunny but they'll be great places to plug in.
Disclaimer necessary about here: it seems that every so often people announce these major breakthroughs in solar power and then we never hear about it again. Anybody who lives in Montreal, aka Vaporville - perhaps the world's capital in announced projects that never get off the ground (highways, superhospitals, etc) - is by nature skeptical and rightly so.But assuming that solar power eventually gets cheap. What does this mean for Montreal? Well, we're not exactly a very sunny place.
Sunny places tend not to have much water. Water could turn into our final ace card and it's certain that the rest of the world will come aggressively trying to get what we have, although, of course, these sunny places could use their solar power to desalinate the nearby seawater.
In other words, cheap and massive energy available to sunny places could make some undesirable hot places a lot more desirable and make places like this look awfully miserable in comparison. Solar power could lead to emigration from Quebec unseen since Bill 101 was passed and screwed up the economy of Quebec.
But a radical breakthrough in solar power could result into a war or two worlds, the sunny, dry places versus those with abundant freshwater. Montreal will be in the second category.
Supposing solar power becomes a major source of energy, there are still several reasons why oil and hydro won't lose their luster.
ReplyDeleteFor oil, there are a million uses besides heating homes and generating electricity, such as powering vehicles, plastics, lubricants, etc.
For hydro, it's power that won't go away, and still relatively cheap to obtain. Diversification of power sources is a good thing.
As for an exodus of people because there is cheaper power somewhere else, that's entirely possible, but currently we have some of the cheapest power in North America, and I don't see an exodus from other places to here, of course we don't have the sunshine you mentioned either.
You're probably right though in some respects, since warm weather means lower heating costs, and cheap electricity would mean even more savings.
As an interesting side thought; since solar power doesn't help vehicles (barring the advent of commercially viable electric cars) and the smog/haze that is becoming more common in the Montreal micro-climate, would that mean islanders would get less juice out of their solar cells? Would we have to sue the 'burbanites for the damage their daily commute causes? Just wondering.
Insightful comments, Furtive.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be too certain about Hydro power being around forever though. Once the Arctic ice caps finally melt due to global warm...err, Climate Change, all bets are off.
I'm currently at about 1000m above sea level, so I'm not too worried.
Paul
Montreal gets enough sun to run Solar Powered things. The less sun you get, the more panels you need to get more watts per hour, that's all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this interesting post !