Do We Need Another Sun Day?

Twenty-five years ago this May 3, as the sun crossed the International Date Line in Auckland, New Zealand, a small band of solar energy enthusiasts rose early to usher in what they hoped would be the dawning of a new energy era powered exclusively by the sun. As what activists call "the only safe nuclear reactor" arced across the globe, hundreds of events in dozens of nations cascaded one after the other, ranging from the spectacular to the sublime. The Citizens Energy Research Institute in Tokyo built a full-scale wind generator in Japan. Photovoltaic cells powered an electric pump and light bulbs in Sweden. A five-mile long "solar clothes dryer" was strung between Miami and Key Biscayne. By the end of the day, almost 30 million people in 2,000 communities in the United States and 31 countries around the world had celebrated Sun Day.

President Carter caught solar fever, boosting America's solar budget by $100 million, installing a solar hot water system on the White House and declaring that the United States should obtain 25 percent of its energy from solar, wind and other renewable energy resources by the year 2000. But as soon as he became president, Ronald Reagan suffered an immediate sun stroke. Within six months of occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he yanked the solar panels off the White House, cut the solar budget over 70 percent, and allowed solar tax credits to lapse that encouraged homeowners to install active and passive solar systems on their houses. Subsequent presidents never revived President Carter's vision for a solar future. Clinton ballyhooed a million solar roof initiative, but failed to bring the idea to fruition. Most Americans don't realize that President George W. Bush's much touted hydrogen car initiative is actually siphoning funding out of geothermal, biomass and other important solar programs in a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

In this age of climate change, terrorist attacks, and ongoing concerns about air and water pollution, there should be far greater support at the federal level for solar power, a non-polluting, secure and infinitely abundant domestic energy source. Instead, we spend $30 billion a year just to defend our stake in Middle Eastern oil fields, and that was before the recent war with Iraq.

Ralph Nader once said, "If the oil companies owned the sun, we'd have solar by now."

Amazingly, in the last 25 years, solar has managed to become a viable energy option even though the oil companies don't own the sun and the federal government hasn't been on solar's side, at least in this country. Globally, new renewable energy helps meet the energy needs of more than 300 million people. Wind power, one of the most accessible forms of solar energy, is on the rise, with the world using ten times as much wind energy as it did only a decade ago. Since 1996, global shipments of photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight to electricity, have increased at an average annual rate of 33 percent.

Still, barriers to truly widespread acceptance of solar energy are severe, not the least of which is price. Generating costs for electricity from photovoltaics range from 25 cents to $1 per kilowatt hour, which is extremely high compared to electricity generated by coal or nuclear power plants. Says Scott Sklar, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association from 1986 to 2000, "If just once we could devote just one third of the $30 billion spent defending Middle East oil fields to commercializing photovoltaics, they'd become three to five times cheaper ... and that much more accessible in the marketplace."

In some quarters, the Bush Administration is being accused of having waged the war in Iraq in order to gain access to that country's oil fields as a way of meeting America's ever-increasing energy demands. War or not, continued dependence on foreign petroleum, and determined reliance on environmentally troublesome domestic energy sources like coal and nuclear power do not bode well for any nation that strives for energy independence, national security, and a healthy environment. On this 25th anniversary of Sun Day, the time seems right for our national leaders to revisit the solar goals set on May 3, 1978 and dedicate themselves anew to a sunny, renewable future.