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.'"

Comments

Here Comes the Sun

[Doc Ruby]

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?

Re:The Forever Headline

[kfg]

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