The other day I finally decided to dip my toe into the electric vehicle pool. There’s now a modestly priced electric bicycle available that seems to be garnering good reviews and it seems like a good way for a 51 year old with a bad back to get out and start a modest exercise program (a little pedal assist is necessary to conserve the batteries). And the tinkering modifiers are having a grand old time upgrading this bike. Beats a Hummer and I'll keep my toes wet while I wait for the electric vehicle of my dreams to become affordable. And in the meantime, when recyclable lithium ion batteries become affordable as they surely will, I’ll switch to an affordable lightweight alternative to add range and power.

But even more exciting to me is the prospect of solar energy. There are a host of solar energy companies who are coming out with newer and more technologically advanced products every day. And one company even claims that they have reached parity with coal fired generating plants, although huge volume production is some time down the road. But when it comes, solar panels may come off the assembly lines like newspapers from a printing press. When that happens, what happens to the fossil fuel industry and all the coal fired plants that will be useless?

Are we destined for a full scale war or will the nation happily embrace the promise of solar power. Al Gore says we can get off fossil fuels for electric power generation, if we apply ourselves, in ten years. Or are we in for the battle of our lives? I am reminded of a similar battle, with a sadder human element, one that is part of American history. In the American South we had huge plantation owners who in the aggregate owned perhaps several million slaves, which in the capitalist system that was in existence then were considered “assets”. The sudden relegation of these “assets” to a zero value on the balance sheet promised to ruin plantation owners, destroy banks who had lent money on these assets, and create financial armageddon in the Southern States. And the battle was joined.

Likewise, we have thousands of fossil fuel and nuclear plants which — if solar panels can be produced on machines at thousands of feet per minute and printed like newspapers &mdash will be rendered into valueless assets and heaping junk piles. These fossil fuel plants are poisoning the planet and all living creatures living on the planet. We are all slaves to the pollution machines that encircle the globe. And the vested interests in these behemoths don’t want the value of their assets reduced to zero, and will fight to keep them. Solar power (and wind, wave and other renewables) have the power to set us free from the deleterious effects of pollution from coal, oil and other limited resources. But we’ve got one hell of a fight to make it happen.

Which side are you on?