I once made a suggestion to a Councillor regarding installing streetlamps with a solar panel on the top so it charged up during the day and lit up at dusk with no drain on the electric grid.
This was rejected at the time as solar panels and British sunshine was unreliable but twenty years on and with solar panels now more reliable and only needing daylight not direct sunlight to operate, it may be worth revisiting as the UK has approximately 6 million streetlights drawing from the electric grid and costing councils millions in a time of spiralling energy costs and squeezed budgets.
As we are looking at things Solar powered, the UK has 262,300 miles of road and by definition is laying there outside in daylight from dusk to dawn and while we can't replace all the tarmac with solar panels as the price would be exorbitant, why can't we run a strip of solar panels down the centre of each road?
262,300 miles of solar panels contributing into the electric grid would make a massive dent in the amount the nation would need to generate or buy and after the initial cost of installation, it would significantly reduce energy costs.
Solar power is the future especially in terms of climate change and cost and we are bathed in a constant and permanent source of solar energy and the means to convert it into electricity for our use and it seems scandalous that we are not using it to at least partially reduce our reliance on dirtier and more expensive means of making electricity.
3 comments:
It was pushed away here also as too expensive and the technology not good enough but it's cheaper and the technology but its now cheaper and works better so it should be looked at again.
Wind, wave, solar, its criminal that we have these permanent sources but instead continue to use methods which pollute our environment.
It's a saying. The police are not literally involved.
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