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Topic: SOLAR ENERGY ? - page 3. (Read 3751 times)

sr. member
Activity: 252
Merit: 250
July 26, 2014, 07:28:05 AM
#53
How much is the price for PV or a mixt PV+Wind solar system in the USA or EU countries? In Romania is around 3 Euro per watt. However, there are better ways than just buy expensive photovoltaic systems; we work on this now. After testing I will be able to come with the results so pls let me know if there is someone interested. You also can PM me. We use them for our eco energy efficient houses built in RO and in some EU countries.
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
July 25, 2014, 12:47:55 PM
#52
Help the environment for sure!
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 25, 2014, 11:11:37 AM
#51

Oh, man, how can you bash Minnesota like that!  I love the north woods! Smiley  But I don't live there, so it's a treat to go for me. Wink

Anyway, there are a lot of places, of course, where solar is not as cost-effective.  You really need dry, desert areas.  The southwest part of the US would likely be the best place in the country.

I love the north woods too:P 

Its been a rough year this year, 8 straight weeks where the high temp was 0 degrees, up to -30 degree lows during that with windchill of -55 degrees...

Then to follow that up it snowed until May, afterwards it rained for 2 months and flooded every river and we were still unable to go outside...So far we have had 1 day where it reached 90....Now Summer will be coming to an end very shortly and you can barely enjoy it!
Ok, yeah, I can see that.  I'm sorry it's been so crappy.  That's one of the biggest reasons that I don't actually want to live in Minnesota: the winters.  I'm in Illinois, and our winters are bad enough.  Of course this last one was one of the most brutal I can remember.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 25, 2014, 11:07:56 AM
#50
I thought you might find this December 2013 article interesting: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244836/Solar_power_installation_costs_fall_through_the_floor

Particularly this part: "The cost of installing photovoltaic solar arrays has dropped to $3 per watt of electricity they produce - about the same as coal-powered plants cost to build ..."

So it sounds like the cost is quickly becoming less of a factor.

Well that is pretty darn interesting, I didn't know that!

If it keeps going like that it would be great, although I live in a crappy part of the states where I don't know if we could successfully use it because we don't get enough sun!  Stupid Minnesota!
The costs are getting much lower per year, I'm not sure what everyone is waiting for.
I don't think anyone is waiting around.  From that article: "As a whole, the U.S. installed 4.3GW of PV solar arrays this year, a 27% increase over 2012."  A 27% increase is a lot.  It takes time to ramp up manufacturing.  You can't just increase solar cell production by 100x in a year.  Besides, there's only so much demand.  It's not cost-effective (yet?) to replace existing power plants that work with solar plants, so demand is mostly going to come from the need for more electricity and from the need to replace old power plants that have reached the end of their useful life.  It also takes a lot of land area and of course the right climate to build a solar plant, so you can't just do it anywhere.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
July 25, 2014, 10:59:27 AM
#49

Oh, man, how can you bash Minnesota like that!  I love the north woods! Smiley  But I don't live there, so it's a treat to go for me. Wink

Anyway, there are a lot of places, of course, where solar is not as cost-effective.  You really need dry, desert areas.  The southwest part of the US would likely be the best place in the country.
[/quote]

I love the north woods too:P 

Its been a rough year this year, 8 straight weeks where the high temp was 0 degrees, up to -30 degree lows during that with windchill of -55 degrees...

Then to follow that up it snowed until May, afterwards it rained for 2 months and flooded every river and we were still unable to go outside...So far we have had 1 day where it reached 90....Now Summer will be coming to an end very shortly and you can barely enjoy it!
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 25, 2014, 10:56:23 AM
#48
I thought you might find this December 2013 article interesting: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244836/Solar_power_installation_costs_fall_through_the_floor

Particularly this part: "The cost of installing photovoltaic solar arrays has dropped to $3 per watt of electricity they produce - about the same as coal-powered plants cost to build ..."

So it sounds like the cost is quickly becoming less of a factor.

Well that is pretty darn interesting, I didn't know that!

If it keeps going like that it would be great, although I live in a crappy part of the states where I don't know if we could successfully use it because we don't get enough sun!  Stupid Minnesota!

Oh, man, how can you bash Minnesota like that!  I love the north woods! Smiley  But I don't live there, so it's a treat to go for me. Wink

Anyway, there are a lot of places, of course, where solar is not as cost-effective.  You really need dry, desert areas.  The southwest part of the US would likely be the best place in the country.
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 2965
Terminated.
July 25, 2014, 09:30:45 AM
#47
I thought you might find this December 2013 article interesting: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244836/Solar_power_installation_costs_fall_through_the_floor

Particularly this part: "The cost of installing photovoltaic solar arrays has dropped to $3 per watt of electricity they produce - about the same as coal-powered plants cost to build ..."

So it sounds like the cost is quickly becoming less of a factor.

Well that is pretty darn interesting, I didn't know that!

If it keeps going like that it would be great, although I live in a crappy part of the states where I don't know if we could successfully use it because we don't get enough sun!  Stupid Minnesota!
The costs are getting much lower per year, I'm not sure what everyone is waiting for.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
July 25, 2014, 08:51:37 AM
#46
I thought you might find this December 2013 article interesting: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244836/Solar_power_installation_costs_fall_through_the_floor

Particularly this part: "The cost of installing photovoltaic solar arrays has dropped to $3 per watt of electricity they produce - about the same as coal-powered plants cost to build ..."

So it sounds like the cost is quickly becoming less of a factor.

Well that is pretty darn interesting, I didn't know that!

If it keeps going like that it would be great, although I live in a crappy part of the states where I don't know if we could successfully use it because we don't get enough sun!  Stupid Minnesota!
member
Activity: 76
Merit: 10
July 21, 2014, 01:05:30 PM
#45
Solar energy is environment - friendly.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 21, 2014, 01:00:40 PM
#44
Solar energy shouldn't even be in the convo at the moment.  It is far to expensive up front and doesn't return your investment until way later of in the years.

I often see this posted on social media about how we need to convert roads to solar panels.  It is a great idea....however if we were to do that to just 1 state(larger state) the country would probably double in debt and its already hard to see us getting out of this whole(USA).  Think about redoing the world...
I thought you might find this December 2013 article interesting: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244836/Solar_power_installation_costs_fall_through_the_floor

Particularly this part: "The cost of installing photovoltaic solar arrays has dropped to $3 per watt of electricity they produce - about the same as coal-powered plants cost to build ..."

So it sounds like the cost is quickly becoming less of a factor.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 21, 2014, 12:50:40 PM
#43
You know what? I once saw satellite picture of Sahara Desert. There were staged solar collectors on like 1/10 of that desert and descriptions: If you put solar collectors on part of Sahara Desert it will generate energy sufficient to power whole world. Now I am wonder why people does not do that?
Three reasons: up-front cost, inability to transmit electricity very long distances, and cost of nighttime energy storage.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_energy_consumption) says that worldwide electricity consumption in 2008 was 20,279,640 GWh.  Even if you  make an optimistic assumption of 12 hours of perfect sunlight per day and $3 USD/W installed in 2013 (so 365 x 12 / 3 = 1460 Wh/yr/USD), that would still be 20,279,640,000,000,000 Wh/yr / 1460 Wh/yr/USD = $13,890,164,383,562.  So $14T.

You can transmit electricity for a number of miles, but the farther it goes, the more you lose due to resistance of the power lines.

And you need a huge amount of electrical capacity (batteries) to store such large amounts of power for nighttime use.
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Stand on the shoulders of giants
July 21, 2014, 11:49:18 AM
#42
what if gov rise charges on non-green energy ... what the impact would be ?
That would help green energy.  But the government won't do that, at least not in the US.  There would be a huge public outcry if they tried.  Plus, the government is in bed with the oil companies, so there's no way they will anyway.

Sad, we live in aan(?) information society ... well I need to get back to some academic papers now. (wow IBM)

hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 21, 2014, 11:30:46 AM
#41
what if gov rise charges on non-green energy ... what the impact would be ?
That would help green energy.  But the government won't do that, at least not in the US.  There would be a huge public outcry if they tried.  Plus, the government is in bed with the oil companies, so there's no way they will anyway.

Edit: It is noteworthy that while I don't think the US government would raise the cost of non-green energy, they do have a lot of incentives that promote green energy, like grants for research, tax breaks for building and installing green energy infrastructure (like adding solar panels to a home), etc.
legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1005
★Nitrogensports.eu★
July 21, 2014, 11:24:51 AM
#40
You know what? I once saw satellite picture of Sahara Desert. There were staged solar collectors on like 1/10 of that desert and descriptions: If you put solar collectors on part of Sahara Desert it will generate energy sufficient to power whole world. Now I am wonder why people does not do that?
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Stand on the shoulders of giants
July 21, 2014, 11:13:30 AM
#39
what if gov rise charges on non-green energy ... what the impact would be ?
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
July 21, 2014, 10:56:52 AM
#38
Solar energy shouldn't even be in the convo at the moment.  It is far to expensive up front and doesn't return your investment until way later of in the years.

I often see this posted on social media about how we need to convert roads to solar panels.  It is a great idea....however if we were to do that to just 1 state(larger state) the country would probably double in debt and its already hard to see us getting out of this whole(USA).  Think about redoing the world...
Unfortunately, if we stick to "we can't afford this now," then it will never happen.  Solar energy is not the full answer anyway.  It's just one of a number of clean energy sources that needs to be developed.  Like many technologies, the more solar is used, the more incentive there is to research improved cells, which will further bring down the cost.  Additionally, it's very likely that fossil fuel energy sources will continue to increase in price.  Solar may be more expensive now, but further development will make it cheaper in the future.
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Stand on the shoulders of giants
July 21, 2014, 09:00:07 AM
#37
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
July 21, 2014, 08:53:44 AM
#36
i'd love to install solar pads on my home, but for now, it's really not cost effective.

Tell me cost of hot water for 5 Years in Your Home  Grin Grin Grin

I have now 150 liter of water at 71 C° for free. And in Summer is normal 90-97 C°.

If I would try to do that I would have 150 litres of ice for most of time Grin
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
July 21, 2014, 08:42:43 AM
#35
Solar energy shouldn't even be in the convo at the moment.  It is far to expensive up front and doesn't return your investment until way later of in the years.

I often see this posted on social media about how we need to convert roads to solar panels.  It is a great idea....however if we were to do that to just 1 state(larger state) the country would probably double in debt and its already hard to see us getting out of this whole(USA).  Think about redoing the world...
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Stand on the shoulders of giants
July 20, 2014, 03:45:24 AM
#34
I am pretty SURE my electricity meter is connected to a Stratum 0 devices, and is nuclear powered ... how can we audit it ? I mean how to know my meter is really showing the proper measurement ?

I would be enlightened by the sun with a miner device 99.999 sun's nuclear fusion ( Our star, the Sun, makes up 99% of all the mass in the Solar System.) powered.

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