As you can imagine, Panama has an abundance of sunshine.  It’s an ideal location to get that perfect bronze tan; to watch the sweat dribble down the side of your cold margarita; or to just generally warm any anxiety you might have.  When I was first on Isla Palenque that line from Harry Nilsson’s, “Everybody’s Talkin’,” kept playing in my mind:  “…Goin’ where the sun keeps shinin’… goin’ where the weather suits my clothes.” However, there was different use for sunshine that also kept playing through my mind, and that is harnessing it for electricity.  Using Photovoltaic solar panels has become fairly acceptable and commonplace these days, and they are part of Amble’s strategy to produce electricity on Isla Palenque.  They are a wonderful piece of technology and a great way to ease the burden of traditional power plants that exhaust a lot of Green House Gases.  That being said, today “marks” – no pun intended – one of my favorite days.  The beginning of the Annual Solar Decathlon.  From the website:

For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.

What I find truly great about the Solar Decathlon isn’t necessarily that they use PV’s to produce electricity, but rather that it demonstrates a few things: that anyone can use this technology, that sustainability can be amazingly beautiful and creative, and that most of these ambitious ideas are coming from students. So have a look.  They are very good at updating images daily.  Here:  http://www.solardecathlon.org/