NEVADAN: BET ON SOLAR

“There is only one source of nuclear energy that really works well,” green living consultant Steve Rypka writes. “It has a proven track record and is extremely reliable. In addition, it has a built-in wireless global delivery system. There is no waste, fuel costs are immune from inflation and the power is not concentrated in any particular country or region. And it is located exactly where a nuclear power plant should be: 93 million miles away…”

Another voice here rings out in favor of building a solar energy infrastructure as the pathway to a “post-carbon society.” Rypka: “We've designed our society around the car and an assumption of endless abundance of cheap energy. The problem is that the energy we've been focused on is the old stuff, ancient in fact, buried in the ground and full of carbon. It's time for the post-carbon revolution.”

Nevada certainly has the sun to support the effort. (click to enlarge)

Let the sun shine in. Solar energy is the wave of the future
March 20, 2008 (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

WHO
Steve Rypka, president, GreenDream Enterprises

WHAT
Rypk urges his fellow Nevadans to learn more about solar energy, to support New Energy policy initiatives and to help the state transition to a post-carbon society.

Nevada Solar One, at 64 megawatts, is the 3rd largest solar power plant in the world. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- The source that can provide abundant, emissions-free, renewable energy rises every day.
- Rypka urges those who can to attend the “premier event for solar energy and energy-efficiency professionals in the United States,” the American Solar Energy Society’s Solar 2008, scheduled for May 3-8.

WHERE
- According to Rypka, the first solar home community in Nevada is being built in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson.
- The American Solar Energy Society’s Solar 2008 will be in San Diego.

Nevada Solar One uses giant parabolic mirrors that track the sun while heating a liquid running through tubes to boil water and drive a turbine. (click to enlarge)

WHY
- The cost of oil and other fossil fuels is rising fast. The price for Nevadans of cooling their homes and driving to work is getting burdensome.
- There are an estimated 11 million terawatt hours of Old Energy potential total in the world, counting all fossil fuels and all nuclear raw materials (1 terawatt hour = 1 billion kilowatt hours). There are 350 million terawatt hours of solar energy every year. (And solar energy requires no drilling, no digging, no mining.

QUOTES
Rypka: “Together, perhaps we can turn Nevada into ‘The Solar State.’”