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Sustainable Development; Renewable Energy, Green Building, Water Conservation, Advanced Energy Storage…What’s all this mean?

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Sustainable Development (SD) must be our way of living today and moving forward.  Wikipedia explains Sustainable Development as:  ‘a process for meeting human development goals while maintaining the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend.’  Do a Google search and you’ll see there are many different definitions for Sustainable Development.  Since I like to keep things simple, we’ll break down Sustainable Development in Three Simple Ways:

“Three Pillars of Sustainability”
  • Environment
  • Society
  • Economy

Environment; ecosystem, ecology, earth.

We rely on earth and her ecosystems for life (air, water, food, shelter, etc.).  Therefore, as Earths dependents, we must all work together to always consider her and protect her and the natural resources she offers us.

Society; us, humanity, social equality.

We rely on earths natural resources (food, water, air, shelter) for survival and must, at all costs, protect and replenish her natural ecosystems while being mindful of humanities societal needs today and for future generations.  We, most of humanity, has also come to rely on our economic system and many of us are working toward economic growth for ourselves.

“Sustainability enables Earth to continue supporting our life.”

Economy; economic growth.

Economies are created and ran by humanity.  We know that humanity (society) depends on earth.  Therefore our economy must also depend on Earth and her many natural resources.  One definition of economic growth is, ‘an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time.’  Economic growth must be re-defined and re-purposed being mindful of our environment(s) and maintaining and replenishing earths natural resources and ecosystems.  The updated definition of ‘economic growth’ should also consider an improved quality of life with less resource consumption and waste.

Solar Power vs. Coal…where do you want to live & receive energy from?

 

Sustainable development, simply put, is the process of meeting humanities survival needs (air, water, food, shelter) while maintaining and replenishing the environment and all of earths natural resources and ecosystems to improve human quality of life with decreased resource consumption balancing toward social equality.

Thank you for taking time and reading this information.  And please share this if you believe it may provide value to others.

Jimi Holt

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7 Impressive Solar Energy Facts (+ charts)

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7 impressive solar energy facts (+ charts)

by author:Zachary Shahan

How solar power has changed over the last 10 years

Solar power is in a tremendously different place today than it was in 10 years ago. Below are a handful of impressive stats about solar power’s growth, as well as some general stats about solar energy potential that are also quite noteworthy.

1. Even yearly energy potential from sunshine dwarfs total energy potential from any other source.

The annual energy potential from solar energy is 23,000 TWy. Energy potential from total recoverable reserves of coal is 900 TWy. For petroleum, it’s 240 TWy; and for natural gas, it’s 215 TWy. Wind energy’s yearly energy potential is 25–70 TWy.

[Source: A Fundamental Look at Energy Reserves for the Planet]

2. Approximately 66% of installed world solar PV power capacity has been installed in the past 2½ years.

Furthermore, total installed capacity is projected to double in the coming 2½ years.

[Source: GTM Research]

3. Global solar PV power capacity grew from about 2.2 GW in 2002 to 100 GW in 2012.

From 2007 to 2012, it grew 10 times over, from 10 GW to 100 GW.

[Source: Renewables 2013 Global Status Report]

4. There are now about 1.36 million jobs in the global solar PV industry.

There are also about 892,000 in the solar heating & cooling industry.

[Source: Renewables 2013 Global Status Report]

5. Germany accounted for nearly one third of global solar PV capacity at the end of 2012.

Italy (16%) and Germany (32%) combined accounted for nearly half of global solar PV capacity.

[Source: Renewables 2013 Global Status Report]

6. The price of solar PV panels dropped about 100 times over from 1977 to 2012.

Since 2008, the price of solar PV panels has dropped about 80%.

[Data Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance / Chart Source: Cost of Solar/Unknown]

7. The sunshine hitting Texas in one month contains more energy than all the oil and gas ever pumped out of the state.

Nonetheless, New Jersey has about 10 times more solar PV power capacity installed than the entire state of Texas.

[Data Source: SEIA / Image Source: 1Sun4All.com]

Those are some of the most impressive solar energy facts and charts I’ve seen, but please let us know if there are some big ones you think I’m missing.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post written by Zachary Shahan, editor of CleanTechnica and Planetsave. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of ABB or its employees.