Why a new energy paradigm is possible

I am a firm believer in solar power. Many skeptics laugh at solar power. Oil is cheap, solar power is expensive and inefficient, they scoff.

Why such negative thinking? Without the sun, there is no life on earth - it is the ultimate energy source. And, hasn't science advanced by trying to understand nature?

While it is true that solar cells are expensive and inefficient, what would happen if they became twice as efficient, or even 3 or 4 times as efficient?

Massive amounts of clean energy, the end of foreign oil dependency, the end of gross fossil-fuel pollution - that's what.

That's the power of technology and it is why nanotechnology has created so much excitement in the scientific world - it will change EVERYTHING.

Sure, maybe in a hundred years the skeptics shout.

Maybe, maybe not.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have discovered a new process for creating sheets of nanotubes that could be used in commercial applications - possibly within just a few years. Such applications include "structural composites that are strong and tough; batteries, fuel cells and thermal-energy-harvesting cells using nanotube sheet electrodes." (More)

Additionally, such nanotube sheets could revolutionize the solar industry. We're not talking 3 or 4 times as efficient solar systems, we're talking solar systems that are 10, 20 even 100 times more efficient than today's systems.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles? Hydrogen gas stations? Phoeey, we're talking about solar powered hybrid vehicles that create their own fuel.

America was once the world's technological leader, today we're the world's leaders in laziness and complacency. We MUST dream for more. We MUST BELIEVE we can live in a world that has the resources to empower all people, not just some people. Science and technology, not laws, can create that world. America needs more scientific dreamers, not ambulance chasing lawyers.

If we dare to dream, we WILL change the world through empowerment and discovery, rather than force and control.