Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by timothy on from the all-I-want-is-a-big-solar-oven dept.

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.'"

2 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What does $1/W mean? by tmosley · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  2. Re:Bullshit. by Desler · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.