Schwarzenegger’s optimistic solar panel forecast

THE world’s economy and its glaciers are experiencing a simultaneous meltdown for many of the same reasons. The solutions to our economic and climate change challenges are also intertwined, and present us with a fantastic opportunity for a century of unparalleled growth and prosperity for everyone — if we start by changing the way we think about energy.

Did you know that enough sunlight falls on the Earth every hour to power all of humanity’s energy needs for a year?

Or that there’s enough hydrogen in the water discharged by sewage treatment plants to power all of our cars, trucks, trains and aeroplanes?

Add to these the potential of biomass, geothermal, tidal power, wind and other renewables and it’s clear that there are enough clean, renewable energy resources — if only we deploy the technology to use them, especially technologies that make more of what we already have.

We’ve done it in California — for example, setting energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings that now make us 40 per cent more energy efficient than average Americans.

Source - The Sun