[AdamSelene235]

Energy density sucks.

Conversion efficiency sucks.

Transmission sucks.

Storage sucks.

It sucks.

Go nuclear !!!

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[Number_Cruncher]

They will provide peak power of 84 kW, enough to supply 60 typical homes.

They must be excluding electrically heated houses in this calculation. That represents one third of the houses.

[justlurking]

The old thin film and mono-crystalline products:

http://www.nwpwr.com/shell.htm

Are any solar panels made with Lexan covers? Otherwise, they wouldn't last through a single spring hailstorm in Texas.

[AdamSelene235]

They will provide peak power of 84 kW, enough to supply 60 typical homes.

Careful, now is the peak power enough to supply 60 homes or the average power enough?

Gee, what's the diffence between the peak and the *average* power? Usually, its huge.

Furthermore, since the sun doesn't always shine and storage is very messy and expensive, you will ALWAYS HAVE TO BUILD THE SAME NUMBER OF *REAL* POWER PLANTS to get reliable power.

That's right the exact same number of natural gas, coal, and nuke plants will have to constructed with or without this feel good nonsense.

This stuff adds power NOT capacity.

[m18436572]

Cut corners, cut corners, cut corners,... hey wait a sec!

[xm177e2]

The greater power output is the result of a change in design. Whereas the solar cells in the lines being replaced have rounded corners, those in the new modules are almost square. The unoccupied spaces between the cells are smaller so that the end-user obtains more power for the area covered. The new modules are called the Shell SQ line, with SQ standing for square.

In other words, there's no actual advance here, it's just a small redesign that provides a small benefit. When solar power is economically viable, then I'll be interested in it.