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Solar Power Becoming More Affordable

Posted by Zonk on from the juice-from-spaaaaace dept.

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.'"

3 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. The Forever Headline by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Solar Power Becoming More Affordable

    This headline can be recycled and reused into perpetuity. Chances are with continuing advancements it will always become more affordable than it was last week, month, year, decade, or century.

    But when will it become truly affordable for the masses? That's what most of us want to know. Wake me when it's time to disconnect from the petroleum/nuclear fired grid.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  2. Nitpick by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Solar Power Becoming More Affordable
    Solar power has always been free. It's the gadgetry that can convert it to certain other kinds of power for us that are getting more affordable. </pedanticbastard>
    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  3. Re:This is why Solar isn't taking off! by Jerf · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I truly believe that the #1 reason why distributed power systems like solar, hydrogen, etc, are not taking off are because the big energy companies don't WANT decentralized energy systems - because they can't control the profits as easily.
    Why hypothesize a gigantic multi-company conspiracy, apparently even extending into all the companies doing solar research (who evidently don't want to succeed), when It's been too expensive to be practical seems to cover the bases nicely?

    The problem with all these "The Big Bad Industry doesn't want X to succeed!" is the absolutely staggering number of X's that have nonetheless succeeded. Who cares what my power company "wants"? If I could buy cost-effective solar, I would. I can't. (And given that I live in cloudy Michigan it's going to be even longer for me than for some of you, but that's just a detail.)

    Good luck to any power company foolish enough to stand in the way of something with the PR power of solar power. Can you imagine the media bloodbath that would ensue if any power company executive even mumbled something about getting solar outlawed?

    Seriously, less emotion, more brain. It's the Universe making solar power hard, not a conspiracy of apparently-omnipotent "evil executives".