On Jul 31, 2007, at 12:28 PM, Jones Beene wrote:
I am at a loss as to why so many otherwise intelligent
folks in the 'green' movement are fixated on
photovoltaic solar cells as being the best way to
convert energy from the sun.
Follow-the-sun dishes are pretty ugly compared to architecture
integrated solar. Solar panels are cheap and getting cheaper:
Production is feasible under $1.00 per watt. See:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yphnlf
as well as various news releases regarding First Solar (FSLR).
http://www.firstsolar.com/
Prices can be expected to fall to $50/m^2 (which is under $0.50/W
at present efficiencies). See:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/242s8
Sterling is expensive by comparison:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dufax
Sandia labs model 25 kW at $50,000 is $2.00/W
"Why hasn't Stirling Energy's technology made more of a splash in the
power business? "Our dilemma has always been how to get costs down,"
explains Osborn. The dish assemblies now run $250,000 each. But
that's because most have been handcrafted in sporadic lots of one or
two units. Building a group of 40 or so would trim the cost to
$150,000 each, Osborn estimates. With real mass production, that
could drop by 50%."
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
