Ariz. Team Seeks Fossil-Fuel Cost Parity, Using Solar Energy Concentrators

autospa writes "A University of Arizona engineering team led by Roger Angel has designed a new type of solar concentrator that uses half the area of solar (PV) cells used by other optical devices and delivers a light output/concentration that is over 1000 times more concentrated before it even hits the cells. This comes as a result of a broader goal to make solar energy cost competitive with fossil fuels (target = 1$/W) without the 'need for government subsidization.'"

Comments

Re:What does $1/W mean?

[tmosley]

A watt is a unit of power, a watt hour is a unit of work. The goal is $1/W which means that a 1000 W system, which produces ~8KWh per day (more further south), only costs $1000, and would pay for itself in about three years, making it economically viable for most people.

Re:Bullshit.

[Desler]

Yeah, those subsidies clearly don't exist. That's why at one point Obama claimed he was going to cut $36.5 billion in them.

Re: the clean West

[presidenteloco]

"We in the West are pretty clean for the most part - it's getting India, China and other developing countries to clean up..."

What the hell are you smoking? Or more aptly, what planet are you living on?

A person living in China is responsible for 17% as much greenhouse-gas emissions as is a person living in the United States.
A person living in India is responsible for 8% as much greenhouse-gas emissions as a person living in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita

and that's not even accounting for the fact that much of the most polluting parts of the Chinese and Indian economies are devoted to supplying the West with goods.

Re:okay, makes sense now, thanks

[DarkOx]

Wow, umm no.\\

Go back and check your history. Edison LOST that argument with Tesla. Tesla wanted AC because it was better for running motors and was more efficient for long distance transmission. Edision wanted DC because its arguably safer.