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.
