|
Posted by Michael Daly on August 22, 2006, 4:50 pm
raven@westnet.poe.com wrote:
>> BTW - in spite of your pessimism, you can do a lot with 5kwh/sq m/day.
>
> But not economicly. Take the money you might have thrown at solar, throw
> it in the bank and use the interest to buy regular power (made from
> whatever the power company finds to be the best buy at the time)
Let's see... the power company offers to connect you to the grid for $50,000.
You still think that solar is a bad idea?
If you're in a city, you can tap in to the grid easily. Not everyone lives on
the grid. For others, solar can be economical. I know folks a few hours from
my house who only get electricity because of solar and wind. They'd go broke
trying to buy it off the utilities.
In many parts of the world, there are people who can do a lot with nothing more
than one solar panel, a single battery and charge controller. That technology
is bringing computers, cell phones, lights and other things to remote areas that
have nothing and it's doing it economically. There's no way you could build a
grid for those locations with the financial resources they have. Solar is
boot-strapping economies in parts of the third world.
Solar has a problem matching the needs of people who live in the west and are
accustomed to wasting energy.
With all the interest in alternative sources of energy (like ethanol for fuel or
biodiesel) ignoring the time+sun element is foolish. The energy we use next
year may depend on what's planted today.
Mike
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap