I’ve often pointed out DarkSyde’s Science Friday posts over at Daily Kos.  This time is no different.  Tackling the question of solar power and its ability to provide clean, renewable, virtually infinite power, What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks? is a must read.

If the earth were subjected to the entire output of the sun for even a few moments, it would broil our lovely world into incandescent vapor. What little our modest planet does intercept warms our world and powers the great global heat exchanges, some of which we perceive as wind and rain. The tiny slice of remaining sunlight which leaks into countless biochemical factories suspended in the heart of every green plant cell are what sustains almost the entire terrestrial biosphere, and only a small fraction of that is occasionally locked away and slowly transformed into potential energy in the form of oil, gas, and coal. Thus you and I and our entire civilization, along with most every plant and animal, are all ultimately sun-powered. A fitting diet indeed for creatures made of star dust.