Can we go solar now, please?

On a nose-bitingly frigid day like today, we might well warm ourselves a bit by thinking about solar energy. The front of my house faces due south. I would love to have a solar-powered solarium attached at that end. Unfortunately, my roof tilts east and west. Surely somebody has invented some kind of solar collector that can fit over top of a roof like mine. That sounds less fanciful than the idea of erecting solar deflectors up in space to counter global warming.

Maybe I can find out at this event happening in Cleveland, July 7-13, 2007:

WELCOME TO SOLAR 2007

The National Solar Energy Conference is the largest and most inclusive solar and renewable energy conference in the U.S. each year. SOLAR 2007, taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, will explore the theme “Sustainable Energy Puts America to Work .” The National Solar Energy Conference combines a premiere technical conference, plenary and forum sessions exploring both the conference theme and the most timely topics of the day, a Renewable Energy Products and Services exhibit that showcases manufacturers, dealers, distributors, installers and other related businesses and services, and workshops, tours and special events of interest to professionals and consumers.

SOLAR 2007 will feature the following:

36th Annual ASES Annual Conference
32nd Annual National Passive Solar Conference
2nd Annual Policy, Advocacy and Marketing Conference
Green Energy Ohio Annual Meeting
Renewable Products and Services Exhibition

Register on-line starting March 15!

For further information, click on the image above.

The sponsor of the above conference, The American Solar Energy Society, has just published a nuts and bolts "How To" report on achieving energy efficiency using renewable energy sources. Amazing! Some people are actually working on the problem at hand as if their might be some urgency to the problem. The greatest unspoken truth of all the inconvenient ones we are facing in the 21st century is that there are 6.7 billion plus human beings on the planet sucking up all the petroleum, coal and gas and burning it and taking down the climate at the same time.

Notice that the conference is for all possible sustainable and renewable energy sources -- not just solar. Their report examines each possibility in detail as well as looking it within context of operating with the other sources. For example, plug in vehicles charging during the night hours when the electric grid is not used so heavily. They are looking at viable, practical roads toward reducing dependency on carbon-producing fuels.

Here's a list of chapter titles and authors:

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

OVERALL ENERGY EFFICIENCY
by Joel N. Swisher, Ph.D., P.E.

BUILDINGS
by Marilyn A. Brown, Ph.D., Therese K. Stovall, and Patrick J. Hughes, P.E.

PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES
by Peter Lilienthal, Ph.D., and Howard Brown


RENEWABLE ENERGY

CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER (CSP)
by Mark S. Mehos and David W. Kearney, Ph.D.

PHOTOVOLTAICS (PV)
by Paul Denholm, Ph.D., Robert M. Margolis, Ph.D., and Ken Zweibel

WIND POWER
by Michael Milligan, Ph.D.

BIOMASS
by Ralph P. Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt

BIOFUELS
by John J. Sheehan

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
by Martin Vorum, P.E. and Jefferson W. Tester, Ph.D.

APPENDIX
The Science and Challenge of Global Warming
by Charles F. Kutscher, Ph.D., P.E.

You can download the entire report here.