The bedrock principle underlying my book Solar Dividends is that nobody owns the sun. That’s an obvious fact, but it leads to some interesting conclusions. If nobody owns the sun, then nobody owns the sunlight energy streaming off it in all directions into space. That means nobody owns the small sliver of sunlight colliding with…

In many ways, fossil fuels resemble an inheritance for the human race. We did nothing to create fossil fuels, yet we enjoy the vast benefits and wealth they generate. Nature produced fossil fuels from plants that stored sunlight energy millions of years ago, plants that did not fully decay but were condensed into coal, oil,…

The Sustainable Systems Research Foundation is initiating a program to develop Solar Dividends in California. The program is titled End Poverty in California with Solar (EPICS). EPICS is a program designed to provide, by 2060, every individual in California with 10 kilowatts of installed solar photovoltaic panels and a monthly basic income, from birth to…

What is the foundation of any economy? If you think it’s money, think again. It’s energy. Money is just a medium of exchange, but energy is what makes things go. Every economic activity requires energy. Energy in the form of gasoline and diesel moves goods locally and around the world. Energy in the form of…

Just as the steam engine enabled the Fossil Fuel Age, so will photovoltaics (PV) enable the Solar Age. The Industrial Revolution began with the automation of cloth making. Richard Arkwright patented his water frame thread-spinning machine in 1768. He called it a water frame because it combined a waterwheel for power and a frame to…

Robert Stayton was interviewed on the Sustainability Now! radio show on Sunday, December 15, 2019. Host Ronnie Lipshutz is a Professor of Politics at the University of California Santa Cruz, former Provost of Rachel Carson College at UCSC, and founder of the nonprofit Sustainability Systems Research Foundation. His biweekly radio show Sustainability Now! covers political…