Posted on 12/09/2006 4:37:18 PM PST by neverdem
Image: COURTESY OF SPECTROLAB
SOLAR EFFICIENCY: New solar cells capture more of the energy in sunlight by layering semiconducting material on top of germanium wafers, pictured here.
Thanks for the link.
Bye Bye Putie
Bye Bye Islamofascists
We hope you enjoy your slide back into the stone ages.
Solar cells are still a niche market. But once the costs drop to the point where they are viable for unsubsidized electric power augmentation for homes and business in places like the Southwest (where he have lots of sunlight and relatively little cloud cover), then the market will explode
Good questions, but I have no idea.
Renewable energy bump.
very little oil is used to make electricity
Unless solar energy is used to make something (perhaps hydrogen) that will displace the use of petroleum products in the transport fuels sector, this isn't going to reduce our dependence on foreign petroleum. Most electricity in this country comes from coal, followed by nuclear and hydro. Relatively little oil is burned to make electricity. Electric substitution in the transport sector would really help the imported oil dilemma.
Back feeding the grid is a pretty good start.
Generally the load peak is mid day, just when the sun provides peak power.
Pumping water back behind a dam while peak sun is available makes a pretty good battery.
When I installed a new roof, the tank and panels were removed. The tank was shipped off to the land fill. I stored the panels for the next 5 years. Eventually, I found a solar contractor who took them off my hands as replacement parts for a small number of customers who had the same setup.
"very little oil is used to make electricity"
If electric heat becomes cheaper than oil heat, oil will go down to $15/barrel.
"Most electricity in this country comes from coal, followed by nuclear and hydro."
Most new plants are cogens that use natural gas.
I've never heard that before. Old Dominion University has a good article about THE NATURE OF LIGHT RADIATED BY OUR SUN and discusses a lot of the irradiance variations. It sure doesn't mention spectral changes varying ever five minutes.
You might conserve some of the potential that the grid uses during the day, but you're still going to draw on those grid sources when the sun isn't shining, so we aren't going to displace them in any real sense, simply extend their potential.
Pumping water back behind a dam while peak sun is available makes a pretty good battery.
Pumped storage reservoirs generally have to be quite large to be economical, and siting those can be a challenge. Here is a case in point.
Not many people know it, but the genesis of the modern environmental movement is traced by many to the controversy surrounding the Storm King Mountain facility. This was a plant in the Hudson River Valley that was to be sited on property near land owned by quite wealthy individuals. These very wealthy landowners banded together to oppose Storm King Mountain, arguing that the presence of electricity transmission lines would obstruct their views of the Hudson River and its picturesque valley (this may sound an awful lot like the recent opposition to the Cape Cod wind farm project). Now, what was Storm King Mountain? Why, it was a pumped storage facility, meant to preserve generating capacity for excess energy generated on the grid, to be used during peak demand periods and perhaps when pollution levels elsewhere were high, forcing curtailment of the operation of heavily-polluting plants. Ask most people today what Storm King Mountain was and most people will say it was a nuclear plant, because that is what generates opposition. You'll generally get a slack-jawed deer-in-the-headlights look when you tell them it was really that darling of the solar energy crowd, a pumped storage reservoir. So when you see those Bohemian-looking scruffy environmentalist wackos demonstrating against some proposed generating facility, point out to them that they are more kin to wealthy New York landowners than any Friend Of The Earth.
Unfortunately, petroleum generates less than 3% of our electric power, so solar cells alone aren't going to free us from dependence on Middle Eastern oil. You will need huge improvements in battery technology for electric vehicles to be practical and fueled by solar energy. The triple junction solar cells in the article only address half of the problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
