Futurist Buckminster Fuller refined, tested, and eventually received a patent on the geodesic dome; a dome dwelling that you'll probably list or sell someday. I'll cover it in a future blog.
This time around I want to relate some real answers about installing solar power on our rooftops, nylons for the women that don't run, and car tires that don't wear out. Actually, it's more about finance than nylons; but please read on...
Buckminster Fuller proposed in his remarkable 1981 book "Critical Path" that "solar is the answer." Near the same time the book was published in May 1981, the price of gas hit an inflation-adjusted $ 3.21 a gallon.
Mercy.
Three bucks. And it appears we're heading there again.
As "green" is now one of the most important topics in real estate ("under all is the land"); Fuller's Critical Path publication before his death in 1983 is still perhaps the most important how to capture and use energy manual ever written. It has just taken us 20 or 30 years to get around to using his ideas.
Our solar technology inventions to date have largely been photovoltaic cells -- wafers and panel systems that convert sunlight into electricity. However, it seems the technology vanished soon after its introduction.
"The big energy companies probably bought the technology to get it off the market for now so they can continue selling fossil fuel ..." I used to tell my classes. I'd suggest that once the oil companies figure out how to put a meter between us and the sun, we'd see solar technology in the marketplace.
I still think I'm right about that one.
Then I'd further suggest to my classes some new colloquialisms derived from "after all, we put a man on the moon:" we ought to be able to manufacture tires that don't wear out...and nylon stockings for the women that don't run."
Perhaps they are possible... but Fuller's posit that solar is the answer was made in 1981. I'm not saying Fuller made solar energy technology viable; rather I'm pointing out Fuller has successfully made the case -- technologically and economically for global reliance on solar energy.
But residential solar energy systems probably have not been commercialized due to the cost of installing photovoltaic panels on our rooftops. It's something like $30,000 to do so. If we believe our own statistics that the average home ownership period is five to seven years, we'll pay to install the solar panels and subsequent owners of the house get the benefits.
So, we don't install them. $30,000 or so is a big bite. It's much easier to send our $90 per month to Rocky Mountain Power, eh?
I want to pass along two web links: the first to an article in "Miller-McCune - Turning Research into Solutions" magazine. A former city councilman in Berkeley, California has come up with a financing method to get residential solar panels installed. It has merit and will benefit all sides of the transaction. It also shows the financial capacity to make it work is already in place.
Check it out at: miller-mccune.com/science
The other link is to Buckminster Fuller Institute. bfi.org. Review this gentleman’s work, and you will win friends, influence your elders, grow two inches taller, find true love and double your sales. ;-))
From My Porch That Needs a Photovoltaic Panel On The Roof
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Prof. Mike @ Class Star®
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