Posted on 01/28/2005 5:47:41 AM PST by presidio9
Hard to believe Canada doesn't have electric cooperatives.
Hmm...if I sprayed my frying pan with it...
Silicon solar cell prices bottomed out. The polymer cell technology has changed the game completely, especially for large panels that could be made as a single unit in a mold instead of a mosaic of smaller cells.
Spray on and heat powered?.
How about a underarm deodorant than can recharge your cell phone while keeping you dry and fresh all day?
Yes but what is energy independence worth to a homeowner subject to shocks in terms of foriegn and domestic energy price jumps. To spend a couple of thousand bucks for a low maintenance energy production system that may not pay for itself for many years may seem foolish, but if you have energy when others don't due to price hikes, wars or natural disasters, the potential costs are insignificant compared to the freedom and flexibility such a system gives a home-owner!
If they want to argue efficiency, then they must compare their best to the industries current best. And the current state of the art is the poly-crystalline PV cells which is 2.5x more efficient than the numbers they offered.
--Boot Hill
Nope, the current crop of products using that technology cost more, are less efficient and have a shorter lifetime than current poly-crystalline PV technology.
As for the newer version of the polymer technology from the thread article...
Ping me if they ever begin shipping product!
--Boot Hill
http://www.dvc.edu/schedule/record_detailSP05.asp?keySection=8184Spring2005AlternateEnergyTechnologies
| Catalog Course Description | ||
| AET-130 Photovoltaic Systems Design and Installation | ||
| 2 Units | SC | May Be Repeated Once |
| 2 hours Lecture / 1 hour Laboratory per Week | ||
| This course will show students how to do solar site evaluations, electrical load calculations, solar system size calculations, and installation techniques. This course will help students design and install their own solar system and/or obtain skills for employment. CSU | ||
How much does one get paid to know stuff that advanced? ;)
Let me know when I can coat my house in this stuff so I can get off the power grid. Thanks.
Actually, your figure won't work if Dr. Alvin Marks' Lumeloid (solar cell on a roll) becomes a reality. Lumeloid, a photovoltaic film, has a theoretical conversion efficiency of 72-84% and can cost as little as $1/m2. The table you cited only used a conversion efficiency of 12% (88% cell converison loss). Even if one were to assume a sold frame will increase Lumeloid's cost to $10/sq meter; the payback ratio will definitely be positive within the first year alone even if one prices it at only 3 or 4 cents/kWh
Here are my figures for an equatorial site:
Solar Intensity above the Atmosphere 1,370 W/m2
Loss of energy from passing through the atmosphere
Absorbed by atmosphere (20%) 274.0
Scattered (6%) 82.2
Reflected back into space by clouds (20%) 274.0
Reflected back into space by earth’s surface (4%) 54.8
Total loss (50%) 685.0
Remaining insolation hitting the earth’s surface (50%) 685.0
Insolation for solar power purposes (54%) 739.8
P.S. I did a Project Proposal for Lumeloid but for a 1,5 and 20 sq km solar power plant located in Yuma (32.67 degrees) latitude. My studies have shown a Lumeloid power plant of 1 sq km in Yuma can break even within two years even if selling the power to utilities for only 2 cents/kWh.
Its worth nothing to the homeowner, but having access to the lowest cost energy is worth plenty.
--Boot Hill
My AC is almost free from geothermal wells.
Lumeloid is made from un-obtainium. My table is wholly insufficient to predict the performance or economics of such a non-product.
We don't live on the equator.
--Boot Hill
I always have heard that the life of a solar panel is only like 10 years with less efficiency each year. Very expensive in the long run with maintenance.
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