At 10:54 1-7-01 -0500, Dan Minette wrote:
> > A footprint of .63 meters squared isn't that much: you can fit several of
> > those panels on the roof of your house.
>
>No it is not. But you have to remember the output of one panel: about 0.25
>kwatt-hour per day. As a result of this, 44 billion of these panels would
>be needed to meet the needs of the US. That is a lot of space. With about
>105 million households in the US, and with household use of electricity as
>about half of the total, we would be talking about 200 of these panels per
>household. That is a total footprint of 120 meters squared.
Apparently, household energy use in the US is a lot higher than in The
Netherlands. I found the following figures at
http://www.duurzame-energie.nl/ (sorry, it's in Dutch). A panel of 1 m^2
generates ~80 kWh per year (under Dutch weather conditions); a system of 4
m^2 produces 10% of the average household energy use. IOW: to get the
average Dutch household on 100% solar power you'll need 40 m^2 per house --
only a third of what you say is needed.
The Dutch Dept. for the Environment (http://www.minvrom.nl) (sorry, it's in
Dutch too) puts the cost of a 1 m^2 panel at ~NLG 2,000 (including all
needed equipment and cost of installation). So, it would cost roughly 40 x
NLG 2,000 = NLG 80,000 (or ~USD 32,000) to get the abovementioned average
household on solar power -- roughly a third of the USD 100,000 you mention.
The real price for installing it will be even lower because of subsidies
from the national and local government and power companies.
> >The system works in The Netherlands, it could also work in the US.
>
>In what sense does it work? Are there are few high profile showcases houses
>that hare heavily subsidized, or are there many purely solar houses?
I think there are a few purely solar houses, but those are probably
showcase houses. However, it's becoming common practice now to install
solar panels and sun boilers into new houses (entire housing blocks at a
time). Of course, this is relatively cheap because of the large surfaces,
and the fact that it's cheaper to install them while building a house than
build a house first and install solar panels later.
There have also been a few projects to build housing blocks where the aim
was to minimize energy use. The first project resulted in 77 energy
efficient houses: these households can reach an reduction in energy
consumption of sixty (!) percent. These houses aren't any more expensive
than other houses: they were sold for an average of NLG 325,000, which is
fairly cheap by Dutch standards.
So far, 5 projects (a total of over 200 houses) have been completed;
average reduction in energy consumption in these houses is 45%. A few dozen
similar projects (for a total of 10,000 houses) have already been started.
Also, a lot of small-sized equipment runs entirely on solar power. For
instance, various goverment agencies have a lot of equipment installed
throughout the country to measure things like weather conditions, noise
levels and pollution levels. Over the last few years, the government has
made it a point to equip all that equipment with solar panels.
It's also used for other things, such as energy for remote locations
(houses and farms in the middle of nowhere, and on islands), public
lighting, beacons, and automated feeding equipment for cattle.
Something else that is heavily promoted (and is quite succesful) is Green
Electricity (electricity from renewable sources). The price per kWh is
higher, but you don't pay Energy Tax over it. Because of that, switching to
Green Electricity will cost the average household a mere NLG 2.50 per month
extra...
>The other aspect of number crunching is pushing throw the PR and seeing how
>much solar energy is actually used. If I found that 10% of the
>Netherlands's energy came from solar, then I would agree that solar energy
>is working there.
We don't get 10% of our energy from solar power, but we're working on
something like that. Our aim is to have 10% of our energy come from
renewable sources by the year 2020. Not only from solar power, but also
from other sources such as wind, bio mass, and water.
Jeroen
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