The Solar Decathlon

As you can imagine, Panama has an abundance of sunshine.  It’s an ideal location to get that perfect bronze tan, to watch the sweat dribble down the side of your cold margarita, or to just generally melt away any stress and anxiety you might have.  When I was first on Isla Palenque that line from Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin’ kept playing in my mind:  “Goin’ where the sun keeps shinin’… goin’ where the weather suits my clothes.”

However, there was different use for sunshine that also kept playing through my mind, and that was harnessing it for electricity. Using Photovoltaic solar panels has become fairly acceptable and commonplace these days, and they are part of Amble’s strategy to produce electricity on Isla Palenque.  They are a wonderful piece of technology and a great way to ease the burden of traditional power plants that exhaust a lot of greenhouse gases. And there’s a way to competitively make use of this technology: every year the U.S. Department of Energy hosts the Annual Solar Decathlon. From the website for the decathlon:

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

What I find truly great about the Solar Decathlon isn’t necessarily that they use PV’s to produce electricity, but rather that it demonstrates a few things: that anyone can use this technology, that sustainability can be amazingly beautiful and creative, and that most of these ambitious ideas are coming from students. So have a look.  They are very good at updating images daily.

TAGS: Energy Panama Sustainability

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