So I am driving through South Georgia earlier this week thinking about all kinds of different things. Don’t talk on the cell phone while driving anymore, so this frees up some time for random thoughts. Yes, I am focused on the road but one’s mind cannot help but wander even with all the natural beauty of South Georgia countryside passing by the window.

So I am driving through South Georgia earlier this week thinking about all kinds of different things. Don’t talk on the cell phone while driving anymore, so this frees up some time for random thoughts. Yes, I am focused on the road but one’s mind cannot help but wander even with all the natural beauty of South Georgia countryside passing by the window.

Here is one that stuck with me - not an original thought I am sure and one you may have considered. We continue to see a tsunami of emerging products and claims for all things solar-powered. New built-in photovoltaic applications sure to save everything from money to countries to the planet itself. Problem is, the money is not working out so good.

A recent report told of the new solar array being installed on the convention center down in Orlando. I did the math and it seems that when you divide up the costs between the hundred or so homes they claim to power with this project and spread it out over 20 years (foolishly expecting it will cost $0 to maintain and actually last that long) the electricity will cost the homeowners around $300 a month. There is a lot left out here (size of the home, etc., etc., etc.). But this is a marginal ROI, especially when you consider that the power source is free.

Story after story touts another new and innovative approach to the myriad of challenges between how we build and power homes now and the “future” where solar collectors and converters become a natural part of the building system. But added to the inertia that is “conventional construction methods” and codes and on and on … is the problem that the value proposition is just not here yet. Just talking about the money … not accounting for the added value of not destroying the planet prematurely (as some would foolishly argue is any minute now).

But after too many words to lead up to such a simple thought, here it is: It could happen. We could see affordable solar power in our homes and it could happen in a remarkably short period of time. For those who think the planet is on the brink of disaster, it will not happen fast enough, but I am convinced that it can happen in my lifetime (I will be 58 in July, God willing).

Flat screen TVs make me think this way.

It was nearly 15 years ago when Kay, the boys, and I moved to Atlanta. I may have the timing off a little here, but it seems I recall this one really “far-out” retailer in Atlanta that touted home theatre products that included large screen televisions. They did not call them “flat screens” because while they were not tube-type televisions they were not all flat. At any rate, whatever you called them it was clearly understood that mere mortals could not afford them. The original product that hit the retail market traded in the low-five figure range. That was just the television - not the “package” that would become the home theatre.

Fast-forward to 2009 and a walk through Costco a few weeks back told me with one-tenth the dollars I can now enjoy a very large screen television that has a resolution that was only a dream back in 1995. It was not a dream … they knew it could happen, but many arguments as to which protocol the engineers would settle on and a lot of other engineering challenges had to be overcome. Stuff I do not know or care about. All I know is there is this big-ass TV in my man-cave that did not cost six-months’ salary.

There were more than engineering challenges to moving the entire television broadcasting industry forward. There had to be cooperation of industry to build new plants and government to approve new broadcast protocol. You can say 15 years (it was a lot longer than that) is a long time, but in the scheme of things it really is not.

With all the interest and new money and new inertia behind solar power today, we could see dramatic decreases in the cost of ownership and operation. We could reach that tipping point with solar in a reasonably short period of time. That is in spite of the fact that it seems so far, far away at this point in our lives (like how in the hell am I ever going to afford a $25,000 television).

It could happen.