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Solar Panels Reach $1 a Watt
ZosX writes "An article over at Popular Mechanics announces that, for the first time, solar cells have been manufactured for the much sought-after figure of $1/Watt. They also talk about a new study of the cost of the particular raw materials used in different manufacturing processes. The conclusion is that the company that just achieved the $1/W milestone, using cadmium telluride technology, may not prove to be the long-term winner capable of meeting demand when it rises into the terawatt range."
get back to me when a individual can buy them for $1/watt.
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This is something we are told about just about any mineral resource, and usually once it gets short, we manage to find a new resource, obviously this cant happen forever, but running out mightnt be an issue for a while. Also it means this technology isnt going to be cost effective for long using the current materials.
Not only is Tellurium extremely rare, Cadmium Telluride is toxic and I wouldn't want to work in a factory that handles the stuff. (although rendered harmless when build into solar cells). There is nothing to celebrate here. As long as we are not able to create energy (or most other high tech) without using up the rarest of earth's elements at an alarming pace, this is a dead end.
This site is news for nerds, no 'news for consumers'.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Well it is getting to be a DIY field, with controllers and isolators being available off the shelf as well as hundreds of how-to sites springing up all over the web concerning wind, micro-hydro and solar augmentation.
But its no surprise that installation costs more than the pieces, that's sort of true about just about anything other than plug-it-in-turn-it-on appliances.
Still there is no reason to assume that the basic modules coming out of FirstSolar's plant are anywhere near ready for Joe Sixpack, and TFA is pretty vague.
The real problem is one of durability and upgrade-ability. The payout period for materials and installation of off the shelf kits to date exceeds the life expectancy of the parts, making this sort of thing only suitable for areas where there are no grid alternatives.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Mod parent up - the mining industry typically just isn't wandering around prospecting for new ore veins unless they a) don't have enough reserves to meet projected demand or b) the price is high enough to justify opening new mines. When the price gets high enough or the reserves get low enough, they go looking and they usually find something. Most of these alarmist "we're out of element X" projections are based on proved reserve numbers, which are just what the mining companies know about *right now* and can extract.
It won't last forever, but there's a lot of ground out there to be dug up yet. I can't promise it'll be as economical to extract as current reserves and prices may fluctuate accordingly, but there *IS MORE OUT THERE*.
The power companies aren't stupid.
As more and more systems are installed, the first thing which will happen is the implemetation of time of use metering on residential customers.
Once time of use metering is implemented, two things will happen: Either you will be forced to sell your PV produced power at a wholesale rate
(a fraction of retail), or the power companies will move peak rates to nighttime, or both.
Your investment in a grid tied system will then be rendered practically worthless.
The point of these installations isn't to keep going without the grid - it's to generate your power either greener or cheaper depending on what angle you're coming from.
But grid-tie won't help at all when the grid goes down.
It also won't help if your phone is disconnected or your house catches fire - what's your point?
The question was whether it makes economic sense, not if it's better than the power grid.
sic transit gloria mundi
No, you're just insane.
They just dropped in cost and reached the level of $1/W. "Reached" doesn't necessarily imply an increase.
There is a lot going on in Thermal Solar right now as it has the greatest potential to meet base load power needs when coupled with molten salt storage.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Thanks for the correction. What I should have said is that you can't step DC voltage up or down using a transformer. I think GP poster was saying he wanted his whole house to be on DC, so that he wouldn't have to have an inverter. That only works if every single appliance works on DC. A low-power technique isn't going to help with a dishwasher. The whole exercise is also pointless unless it's cheaper and/or more efficient than the way everything currently works with 110 V AC as the standard. I doubt that the techniques you're talking about satisfy the condition (high power) and (cheaper or more efficient).
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For 5V, for example, use a 7805
The 7805 isn't a switch-mode power supply, it's a simple series regulator. The voltage that appears across it x the current through it equals its power dissipation, i.e. the power it is merely wasting as heat in order to drop the voltage to 5V. That can be quite considerable - if it's handling 1A and dropping from 12V, it's wasting 12-5 X 1 = 7W, while delivering only 5 X 1 = 5W to the load. That's only 41% efficient. You don't want that sort of figure when your power source is solar.
A true SMPS will do much better, but unfortunately is more complicated than one three-legged IC and a few caps.
I have never ever heard of a government employee who would rather have people dependent on the government. It makes sense in conservative land but it's not true in reality.
Solar panels will have different outputs depending on the weather and latitude where they are installed. Quoting the price per watt under idealized conditions isn't propaganda, it provides a reasonable basis for comparison.
Though if some salesman comes to your house and quotes the price per watt, you should probably get all reactionary (unless he is comparing two different systems).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I voraciously read all that, and I don't own anything Apple, or buy that many games, etc.
The fact that they sell the technology doesn't mean that the technology is not interesting per se.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Wow, one pound on the whole Earth?
That's pretty much not existent.
It doesn't matter if you can make juice at a buck a watt if your panels are made of unobtainium.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel