Today is Blog Action Day and bloggers from across the globe are blogging about environmental issues. The posts can be about absolutely anything related to the environment, so I’m focusing my efforts today on discussing solar energy. I am by no means an expert in either green living or solar energy, but I’ve been fascinated with the idea of utilizing solar energy for decades now. Unfortunately, I have yet to purchase a home that came already designed to be powered via solar panels, and it’s not exactly cheap to switch over.

There are people working to make it cheaper for us to be able to power our homes, or at least partially power our homes. According to ScienceDaily, a team of Durham University scientists are developing “more affordable thin-film PV cells [that] could lead to a reduction in the cost of solar panels for the domestic market and an increase in the use of solar power.” Besides being a sustainable energy source, solar power would mean reducing our energy bills by a huge amount, and I’m all for paying less money each month.

Even if you can’t go totally solar any time soon, you can use solar energy for powering much smaller objects than a home, and the price for that can be very affordable. I’ve been shopping lately at SolarHome. You can get some great garden and pool lighting and heating gadgets that will make your life warmer and brighter without costing you any extra each month in electric bills. And better yet, you are doing a good thing by not adding to our already mounting environmental problems. They also carry a nice line of solar-powered chargers for your mobile devices so you can deal with emergencies.

I hope I live long enough to be able to have a solar powered home. That would just really put a huge grin on my face. Until then, I’m going to try to utilize as many solar products as I can so that I can contribute to a better environment and reduce my cost of living just a little bit more.