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Solar Power Becoming More Affordable
prostoalex writes "With both startups and large companies such as Boeing working on solar power, the technology is becoming more affordable, MIT Technology Review says. Solar power concentrators are all in rage now: 'The thinking behind concentrated solar power is simple. Because energy from the sun, although abundant, is diffuse, generating one gigawatt of power (the size of a typical utility-scale plant) using traditional photovoltaics requires a four-square-mile area of silicon, says Jerry Olson, a research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO. A concentrator system, he says, would replace most of the silicon with plastic or glass lenses or metal reflectors, requiring only as much semiconductor material as it would take to cover an area the size of a typical backyard. And because decreasing the amount of semiconductor needed makes it affordable to use much more efficient types of solar cells, the total footprint of the plant, including the reflectors or lenses, would be only two to two-and-a-half square miles.'"
Let's see, four square miles of sunlight focused onto my back yard. Conversion efficiency ~30%. Melting point of silicon 1414 deg C.
Unless I've got a backyard the size of Bill Gates, lifetime of new solar plant = one sunrise.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Indeed, if manufacturers can meet the challenges of ramping up production and selling, distributing, and installing the systems, their prices could easily meet prices for electricity from the grid, says solar-industry analyst Michael Rogol, managing director of Photon Consulting, in Aachen, Germany."
I've heard that Photon Consulting is really fast.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Americans vote Democrats control of our government, and suddenly 3 days later solar power could be affordable. When they actually take power on 1/3/2007, will we finally get our goddamn flying cars?
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make install -not war
Just think ... to save even more space, we can use several layers of reflectors ... oh, wait ....
I heat my house with solar power already. I use natures solar power storage system, wood. The trees are nice enough to store it for me in a solid form until I need to release it again.
Finally - this can only mean that Halliburton and Bechtel decided to lower the price of photons!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
One of the problems with solar power is that it is unreliable; innately.
Solar power is reliable as hell. What's not reliable is our atmosphere!
Dyson spheres, anyone?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Solar power is reliable as hell.
Dude, the whole impetus for developing an electric power infrastructure in the first place was the desire for lighting when it's dark out.
KFG
I'm sick and tired of you naysayers and skeptics bringing up conservation laws. Didn't the conservatives just get thrown out of congress? Now those pesky conservation laws can get repealed once and for all!
And maybe they'll do the laws of Thermodynamics while they are at it.
Aren't they the party that proposes setting national policy by a daily horoscope? That would make the United States a Cancer...
(Stop that snickering, you in the back!)
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
What? You've never heard of the were-car?
Live forever, or die trying.