Michel Jullian wrote:
Hi Stephen, it won't take that long if Nanosolar, mentioned by Terry
in an earlier post, delivers as they seem poised to do since they
have secured 100 million dollars of financing and are going into
production in 2007, cf: http://www.nanosolar.com/articles.htm
Interesting.
I still need to decide whether solar panels actually make sense here. I
still love the idea ("The perfect machine must have no moving parts" and
all that) but we spend an awful lot of days waiting for the sun, which
often fails to show up, save as a thin watery thing behind a veil of clouds.
If solar panels do make sense, it sure sounds like putting off the
rooftop part for a while might make sense. Particularly in light of the
claim I ran across <somewhere> that the silicon solar cell market has
been choking due to a shortage of raw materials, it's easy to believe
prices may come down in a hurry if any plausible alternative makes it to
market.
What they seem to have achieved in pre-production is awesome: durable
and efficient inexpensive nano-ink printed aluminum foil PV panels
which could pay for themselves in just a few months at standard
electricity rates!
Potentially the definitive answer to the world's energy problems if
an inexpensive storage technology emerges too (supercaps, hydrogen?),
and maybe even if it doesn't since peak electricity consumption is in
daytime.
Michel
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen A. Lawrence"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "vortex-l" <[email protected]> Sent:
Wednesday, December 27, 2006 4:59 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Musings on
grid-independence and personal alternative energy
...
But we have a south-facing sloped roof with no trees shading that
side, which made the idea of solar panels seem appealing. But if
it's going to take 250 years to recoup the cost difference versus
some other approach, maybe solar cells are not such a hot idea...
...
