“Intelligence is the ability of a species to live in harmony with its environment.” This is one of our favorite quotes here at EcoWatch, coming from the environmentalist Paul Watson.1
Learning to work with solar energy, the most abundant natural resource on Earth, serves as the perfect example of living in harmony with one’s surroundings. You don’t need to look any further than the leaves on a tree to see this at work.
When most of us think of solar energy, the first thing that comes to mind is modern solar panels. Over the last few decades, photovoltaic technology has improved exponentially in cost, efficiency and scale, nearing a point of ubiquity in the world’s energy ecosystems. For that reason, it may be tempting for us to think of solar panels as the past, present and future of harnessing solar energy.
However, humans have utilized solar…