Cool bump. Did a lot of studying when I built my house, hoping to try some solar . Far too expensive and complicated--but someday the design will work.
Word up. Solar is still not ready for prime time given the costs/savings. I'll wait for the 5X efficiencies noted in the article.
'Did a lot of studying when I built my house, hoping to try some solar . Far too expensive and complicated--but someday the design will work.'
Sure, solar power is expensive, but isn't it just a one time expense, basically? I would think very little maintenance would be required? So solar power may cost a lot now, but it pays for itself in the future and you reap those savings year after year?
Solar is getting there... traditional solar cell systems are benefitting from the process improvement in semiconductor manufacturing... if they can follow a similar price curve for power as current CPUs did, in about 3 years you will be able to buy the same system for about half the cost.
I wanted solar power or something from the latest technology to heat/cool when we built two years ago. Solar was too expensive and the idea of a windmill/battery bank didn't seem like a good idea. We went for a geothermal heating and cooling unit with 4 200 foot wells under the driveway. Works great.
Solar/wind installations are only cost-effective when you are far from the grid. A lot of cottages in northern Ontario have solar panels and wind turbines because the setup cost ($10/watt including batteries and chargers) is cheaper than getting a hydro line run to the nearest pole.
I got my solar array years ago. In another 20 years or so it should reach break even...
ping
Dittos. We're hoping to build a house soon, and I'd love to be able to use such solar technology, assuming it were cost-effective.