How my life is like that of a solar panel
Getting up early
A solar panel gets up bright and early in the morning. As soon as the sun starts to rise, so does its level of output. Its current is sluggish at first, but soon the electricity really starts to flow.
I’ve spent the past two days trying to train myself to get up early, just like my future study companion, the solar panel. The first day was really hard, waking up 2 hours earlier than usual. The second day is today, and I’m doing pretty well except for an upset stomach in the morning still. I tried doing some exercise to get my level of output up; I do feel more alert at this time than I did yesterday, though I still can’t exercise at my full level of output in the morning compared to later in the day.
High output on sunny days
Today looks to be a nice and sunny day. On dreary, overcast days, again I find myself to be much like the solar panel. My output really suffers. In contrast, today looks to be a high-output day. Solar panels all over the area should be enjoying the day, as will I.
Finding purpose in life
The sole purpose of a solar panel in life is to produce electricity. It is unambiguous what it is made to do. In contrast, it has taken me some time to figure out what I am made to do. I see that I have hands, feet, and a brain, so I figure I am designed to handle things, move about, and think. However, there are so many possible job functions to choose from where I can do those three things.
I have concluded that, at least for the next year or so, my purpose in life will be to use my innate skills to help solar panels achieve their purpose in life. It is a noble purpose, to help convert free sunlight into electricity that can be used to move things, drive things, power things. Read more…
Categories: Thoughts Tags: life, output, solar panels
The beautiful simplicity of solar panels
It might be hard to see, but I see an implicit beauty to solar panels.
A solar panel has just one purpose in life, and that is to generate electricity for as long as it can. When it is manufactured, its purpose in life never has a chance to be ambiguous. It is readily apparent what the solar panel is for – to take sunlight and convert it to electricity.
It doesn’t matter what the weather conditions are – neither rain nor sleet nor a little snow will stop the solar panel from making its electricity. As long as a few photons can reach the panel from the sky, an output will be made, no matter how feeble. The solar panel never tires of performing its duty, its one job function in the whole world.
When darkness falls, and almost all the people are asleep in their beds, the solar panel must also wait in anticipation for the arrival of a new day. No output can be made in the depths of darkness.
When the solar panel grows old, its output may decline. However, if kept in good repair, it will function for a long time. Each and every day that the sun rises with certainty, the solar panel will output electricity with certainty, until it suffers a terminal malfunction. On that last day of its life, it will produce its last bit of electricity, and then no more.
What happens to solar panels that have died? Do they get recycled to ashes, and their ashes turned to dust from which new solar panels are made? The cycle of life would then continue, powered by the energy the solar panel had helped to capture during its lifetime. That would be fitting.
