I was watching Renovation Nation on the Planet Green channel this morning, (hosted by my all-time favorite former This Old House host Steve Thomas,) and was once again struck by the fact that our sun gives off enough energy in a single hour to supply our entire planet’s energy needs for an entire year.

If that isn’t an optimistic thought when faced with all the lies we’re fed about needing fossil fuels… I don’t know what is. We humans have apparently always thought small (or at least too few of us have thought big) about finding alternative sources of power. Mankind is stuck in an oily, gassy rut – unwilling to spend any meaningful time or money to not only invent better, cleaner, renewable alternatives but to employ them on a grand scale that renders coal, oil and natural gas obsolete once and for all as a means to extract energy.

In that spirit, last night’s episode of Renovation Nation featured a California couple who was putting a solar panel array on their roof. Within a couple hours, they’d spent about $15,000 (after receiving another $15K back in rebates and tax credits) and unceremoniously, completely, removed themselves from the electrical grid.

How exciting is that? Well, pretty darn exciting.

So as I write this, I sit 10 feet below 8,000 square feet of perfectly flat roof, 40 feet high, with uninhibited southern exposure. So I decided to call the same company used by the couple in the t.v. show and find out more. They’re called Sunpower.

While I don’t have any hard numbers just yet, I’m beginning to think that my 25-unit condo building might be sitting beneath our very own solution to an escalating electrical bill – electricity which is almost certainly supplied by some filthy coal-burning plant.

I’ve talked to the reps there, and I’ll soon be contacted by their local partner in Madison, WI. Stay tuned!