[Editor's note: applies to all parts of USA] Are you a Bay Area homeowner who is thinking about installing solar photovoltaic panels on your roof to help fight global warming? Good for you. You may be the first on your block, but you are probably far from the first in the Bay Area. I know one man, an architect, who put solar panels on his home in 1984.
There is a lot of excitement about new solar panel technology, but more likely than not you will choose to install modules that use the same basic technology that was available in 1984. They are a proven, long-lasting way to convert sunlight into electricity. The latest models have decent efficiency, turning about 20% of the energy that strikes them into power. New technologies continually make the news, but for the most part are only applicable to very large commercial installations, not residential rooftops.
My lifelong pursuit, since age 18, has been to live more fully and find wisdom. This has involved studies with Zen masters, Tai Chi masters, and great psychotherapists while achieving my license as a gestalt therapist and psychoanalyst.
Along the way, I became aware of how the planet is under great stress due to the driven nature of human activity on this planet.
I believe that the advancement of human well-being will reduce societies addictive behaviors, and will thus also help preserve the environment and perhaps slow down the effects of global warming and other major threats to the health of human societies.