The weather forecast presents a gloomy future.

In the last few years the changes of the climate due to the “green house effect” are becoming more and more obvious and personally experienced by many people in the world. Almost everyday there is news on the television, articles in the newspapers and magazines, about how the climate currently is changing and the implications that it may bring about.Just to name a few recently occurred signs of a change in the climate: more and more f4requent hurricanes, melting ices, draughts, flooding, etc., etc., bringing with them as a result immense damages for people and their economy.The worst thing is that the changes in the climate may just be by their beginning, leaving much more to come, unless we all immediately contribute to diminish the global warming, “the green house effect”.The burning of fossil fuels, like oil to heat our houses, petrol to drive our cars, fly airplanes, etc., all add to CO2 emissions, which according to the majority of the world’s scientists explains the warming up of the planet, making the world an everyday more unpredictable and dangerous place to live in.

We can do something about it!

The obvious conclusion of what just has been said is, that we shall have to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, and preferably today instead of tomorrow.CO2 can be reduced in many ways, i.e. by such simple actions as to unplug your TV, Hi-Fi-equipment, mobile phone charger and other electronic equipment, when you don’t use them, or, not to let the engine of your motorcar run when you are waiting for your friend to come back from the supermarket, newspaper stand, etc., etc.Turning to a global scale, a very important step was taken when many of the world’s leading nations signed the so called “Kyoto-Convention”, which aim is to oblige the member nations to reduce their CO2 emissions. Spain, as a member country to the Convention, aims (according to the Law RD 436/2004, page 2 – see here below) to achieve that 12% of the energy consumption by 2010 shall be generated by renewable energy sources, like the sun and the wind.Spain is, in this context, a fortunate country insofar that the sun shines generously not only over the Spaniards and the tourists visiting the country, but also over electricity producing solar panels.The use of solar cells, which are built into solar panels, also called photovoltaic cells/panels, are by many experts seen as one of the cleanest and least disturbing ways how to contribute to a better future for both the earth and its inhabitants:

• they don’t contaminate, neither chemically, nor  electromagnetically, nor acoustically, and are thereto optically very “discrete” in comparison to i.e. wind generators;

• they require very low maintenance and hardly any costs for staff, as their function is practically automatic;

• further, they are characterised by their relative technical simplicity, long life (currently the oldest photovoltaic parks are more than 20 old) with the new generation of photovoltaic panels estimated to have an expected lifetime of some 30 – 40 years;

• and last, but not the least, this method of producing electricity doesn’t require neither large investments nor large centralised plants in comparison to most other methods of producing electricity (i.e. nuclear energy, hydro power, wind energy generators, etc.).