Time For Solar Energy

mother jones :spew:

I took a quick look at the artice and see it's missing some critical info. on the graphs energy storage/energy transmission/ and regulation. it also had no mention of how subsidie's played into the numbers


By the way im not trying to bad-mouth solar, but I rarely see accurate info. in the news relm weither right left or otherwise
 
Not yet ready for prime time. Solar panel are so low efficiency, that the must be kept clean. That job alone is a big one. The energy must be stored in batteries, to be used. Selling back to the grid is not a winning advantage. They are wide and ugly.

This generation of panel is over. There will be much better gear, later. We think we are funding development in new gear when we buy the old junk Tech from China, but we are not.

Even things like this, have big problems....they kill birds better than the wind mills do.

solar-thermal.jpg

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But, with Google building a mirror farm, I would say, it has legs as a technology. But, it is not
solar panel, is it? No. These are plain, old fashion, water boilers....Steam Engines.

images



Here is where solar gets interesting for me. Orbital. No dust, raw sunlight, converted to microwave.
Power Beaming to Earth Stations, is the way to go.



spsalpha-space-power-concept-2011.jpg
 
With the same subsidies as fossil fuels, solar is economically viable today. It's also grid friendly for tie-in applications, since the utility can plan for daytime. New types double as flooring so you can build rooftop decks with panels.

Solar isn't the whole answer, but it's a good part of one. Frankly, I'd much rather subsidize solar than fossil fuels. That would make electric cars even more economically attractive than they already are, because THEY ARE ROLLING BATTERIES FOR POWER STORAGE. And they use that power at above 90% efficiency, unlike the smog chugger under your hood now.

This scenario works just as well for wind generated electricity as it does for solar.
 
It's a terrible answer compared to hemp production.

It takes huge amounts of energy to create solar panels. Current generations just aren't that efficient in return and then on top of that you have the batteries which are brutal to produce as far as the environment is concerned.

The nano tech 3d solar panels have a much brighter future but they are hardly mainstream.
 
Rrog said:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/solar-energy-power-boom-charts

Why wait? I'm doing it.
Click to expand...

I like the why wait comment. A lot of people hate that It's going to take a while to get your money back out of solar.
But if no one ever invests in solar. Then in those years that pass to get money back the people who don't do it now for example.
When time comes they could have saved enough money by using solar but didn't then the cycle just repeats and again they say
Oh well I don't want to wait that long to get my money back, wait another 10 years they say the same thing, never progressing to
where its worth it. Just my opinion anyway. Sure the technology could be better, I think a lot of things could be better. A while back
I saw something about new batteries that the cell which stores electricity is being made from a spray. So at some point batteries could
be sprayed onto any surface.

 
As far as cleaning the panels I don't understand why there isn't a system for this yet, such as intermittent windshield wipers.
Just hook windshield wipers of some sort somehow that spray and clean, or some other squeegee system that cleans periodicity as programed, haha.
 
TwistItUp said:
As far as cleaning the panels I don't understand why there isn't a system for this yet, such as intermittent windshield wipers.
Just hook windshield wipers of some sort somehow that spray and clean, or some other squeegee system that cleans periodicity as programed, haha.
Click to expand...

'Rain.' You only have to spray them down if it's been dusty dry for awhile, or just had a dust storm. Plants need the same treatment for the same reasons.
 
ttystikk said:
'Rain.' You only have to spray them down if it's been dusty dry for awhile, or just had a dust storm. Plants need the same treatment for the same reasons.
Click to expand...

No. I put in skylights recently

Rain and no scrub just makes it worse

You can keep an eye on effectiveness clean and the
dirty

Early adopters are needed
But not to fund future development

EAs are necessary to have any chance of more adoption in a commercial sense, is my point

It simply works the soft. Psycological goal of adopting alternate energy forms

That is a good thing
 
It's a good investment with a calculated payback period for me. After that, I make $$ per month.

Calling this early adoption is a mis-characterization of the tech, imho.

While some embrace the new, some critique it to death.
 
Rrog said:
It's a good investment with a calculated payback period for me. After that, I make $$ per month.

Calling this early adoption is a mis-characterization of the tech, imho.

While some embrace the new, some critique it to death.
Click to expand...

Dictionary Dude sees the need for clarity:

Early adopters are by definition those who buy earlier than the average buyer as determined by statistical standard deviation. The technology could be millennia old, as in the case of passive solar homes, and still not be widely adopted, leaving 'early adopters' as the only ones currently living in them.

By contrast, no one buying a smart tablet today is an early adopter anymore, since the devices have already both penetrated and permeated the marketplace- despite the technology being less than twenty years old.

Solar panels aren't new. Their historically higher costs and lack of subsidy have prevented them from moving into the mainstream. As this changes, we'll see a groundswell of people buying them.

UNTIL that groundswell of demand happens, everyone buying them- at least in backwards America- can still be reasonably considered to be early adopters.
 
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ttystikk said:
Solar panels aren't new. Their historically higher costs and lack of subsidy have prevented them from moving into the mainstream. As this changes, we'll see a groundswell of people buying them.
Click to expand...
They are at historically LOW costs and there's tax rebates (as their should be) for 1/3 of the installation.

Great deal
 
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