I understand now. I was considering placing the panels out of the way on the roof. This is convenient in the 41 states with net metering laws http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/03/net-metering.h tml. I agree with you that purchasing solar is a little better than
break even right now and you can probably find investments that return more. The way we do business is to rent the equipment for the power it produces at the rate you are paying now. You can fix the rate for up to 25 years, the amount of time a system would produce at above 80% rated power with maintenance included so that if the inverters break down (typical life: 15 years) they get replaced without charge.
All-electric cars are quite a bit cheaper to run counting fuel costs. With some reasonable assumptions about the cost of replacing batteries, they still seem to come out cheaper. But, they are still very expensive to purchase with very few on the road with a useful range. I expect the plug-in hybrid is going to get a large market share first with perhaps a 40 mile range between charges for all-electric operation. This is useful for some commutes, but it is not the 300 mile range rapid charge
technology that could replace the ICE.
Amps are inversely proportional to volts once you fix the wattage, so your original spec on watts is the one to go with. Are you doing some day-night
averaging? For the moment, I'm thinking of charging at night (under net metering) and I'd expect most of the time the system would be covered under a
homeowner's policy. We are getting varied responses for our rental systems, but for a system that you own, policies ought to come at no extra cost. This is what we see when insurers do say they'll cover our systems. -- Rent solar power with no maintenence fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Most single storey houses have enough roof space to allow current silicon panels to both power the house (under net metering) and charge a
plug-in hybrid. It does not take acres. If you have a taller house, you might need some yard space since you've got more floor per unit roof
to power. Polymer panels may hit 10% efficiency befor to long. The current record is 6.5%http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19044/, so there is not all that far to go to catch up with
16-20% efficient silicon. --
Sprout silicon leaves: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
I found that switching to my own cable modem was not too much of a problem and the router works with that. After this is set up, any operating system
will do. But, comcast is always the last bill I pay because I have to boot into windows to do it. You all charge a late fee so I don't feel bad about
being late, but it is a pain that I can't do that bill together with the others and have to interupt sessions to finally get it paid. -- Switch to solar and get firefox compliant billing: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Yes, the main thing about having organic rich soil is that water is retained in way that is generally good for roots. It can also help to retain bioavailable nitrogen rather than having this leach out to the water supply. Putting charcoal in the soil tends to stablize the carbon (it does not
rot to CO2 so quickly) while performing a similar service. Here are some other folks in Georgia working on this: http://www.eprida.com/hydro/ecoss/presentations/NH A/Poster_Handout.pdf.
It is still in startup mode. The site for the factory is selected and there is a transportation study started now. The timeline for starting installations was first quarter of 08, but I do not know how much can be done in terms of getting the pilot production line going while the
study is ongoing. There is also a need for beta systems both to shake out the billing system and for UL approval. The modules for these will be built using cells from a third party supplier so only a portion of the line is needed for this. Since the CTO sits on the panels that write the standards, there shouldn't be an issue meeting them, but the line does have to exist. It is possible the schedule could slip as it has once already when the plant location changed owing to better state incentives.
Yes, I think this could be good. We'll still need to reduce consumption though it we're going to get to the point where we are covering our liquid
fuel use through domestic production.
The electric service you promote in your link apparently has MLM characteristics in the sales structure. Is this true ? If I sign up "under you" do you somehow get a cut, and then I can sign up more people ? The company is controling marketing costs to 16% of revenue by using network marketing so there are commissions for personal sales and smaller percentages that come from the sales of people you help to train. If you register for a system, you can take advantage of a program where you can get 5% of the bill of a person you refer off of your bill, but this is not sales. You can get involved in sales without getting a system for your home http://www.powur.com/mdsolar and there is some effort but no cost to do this. There is an initial test which requires about four hours of study and then once you've passed that you can start selling and building a network of your own. Customer support includes explaining how the systems work and where the company is at, preparing contracts and helping customers to make changes as needed. There is a cost of printing and stamps in this. There is only small compensation until systems are actually installed (10% payouts on bonuses; see compensation at the right of the above link) and this only after customers are independently verified by the company to be both the homeowner and the utility customer. There is no money really to be made right now! Nor is any money collected until the panels are ready.
I realize that even if it is true, that does not mean it's a bad deal. Will I come out financially ahead even if I don't bother with the sales aspect of it, and just get the panels on my house ? In some places, like where I live in Maryland, you'll start saving as soon as the system is intalled and working. This is because the company is offereing rates that attempt to match the rates utilities charged in 2005. As it happens, in Maryland, they missed the distribution charge so everyone saves a little while for utilities that have raised rates people can save a lot. Baltimore Gas and Electric is and example http://mdsolarpower.com/. In other places, especially where electric rates are complicated (tiered or time-of-use) people may end up spending a little more initially. Many of my customers are pretty energy conscious and so under tiered rates more of their bill is under the lower rate than the average which are what the company's rate calculations reflect. If you assume utility rates will go up, then the savings over time for the fixed solar
rental rate could be substantial. There is a calculator that assumes a 2% per year utility rate increase at the bottom of http://www.jointhesolution.com/mdsolar that you can use to make an estimate.
Also, if lighting strikes and destroys all the panels, do I pay to have them replaced or does the company ? The company is responsible for damage caused by the system and the customer is responsible for damage to the system (including your example, lighting). Some insurers are planning to cover the systems at no additional cost, but some are not sure or have said they won't. In cases where there is no possibility of the homeowners policy covering the system, the company will offer coverage but the details are not yet available.
Hope this helps and thanks for asking. I'm facinated by the potential of this model for a rapid transformation of how we produce energy. There are,
however, real risks in getting involved in a startup. Risks for the customer are minimal, but getting more involved can lead to effort without payoff if the company is not successful. Remember that you can work with other slashdot users listed at http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html. None of those currently active are on my team (aside from me).
The news is that the Government has granted a permit. This means that things can get going. It also means that things were ready enough to get going
that a permit application could be submitted.
The company I sell for is a start up as well and it is currently going through a transportation study. To do that, the full plant design has to be available so that the needs for shipping in and out, numbers of worker and their shifts can be integrated into the study. Things are pretty advanced at this stage. Financing has to be solid as well or why would the state engage in the study? So, the ethanol plant will be built and produce. It may not make a profit, something could go wrong, but I'd expect it to be built. --
Register your home for solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Much of the water use for ethanol production comes in the form of irrigation. For forests this is not an issue. For fermentation you use about 10 times
as much water as you produce in fuel because yeast does not tolerate a very high alcohol content. Portions of this water can be reused in principle since
it is not all evaporated upon distilation. Wet mashes are being used more an more for feedlots located adjacent to distilleries. That is water reused
for other purposes.
Rooted plants are not that efficient at converting sunlight to energy we can reuse. So, when you try to replace our liquid fuel use this way you end up only being able to do 20% or so. You can do better with algae but it seems to me we get better conversion efficiency using photovoltaics. There are
two things going on. Algae may be able to get up to about half the efficiency of current PV panels but since the fuel will be used in a heat engine
you take a hit that electricity does not run into. So, you need about 6 times more area for algae as for PV to make a car go the same distance. For rooted plants it is about 600 times more area than for PV. But that is land area we are already using for food for the most part so you end up with
a limit on production owing to low efficiency even though there is plenty of energy coming in. -- Register your home for solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Combining feedlots with ethanol distilleries is not unique to CA. This is becoming pretty standard. Remember, when you have mash left over, you are not converting cellulose (much). It is the sugar starch and caorbohydrate which is being used. -- Solar power with no system purchase: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html
Slashdot Mirror
This will depend on state law. Some laws appear to assure you access to the Sun, others require you to write up an agreement with your neighbor which then has the force of an easement. Some states have no laws. You can check your state in this table: http://www.dsireusa.org/summarytables/reg1.cfm?&Cu rrentPageID=7&EE=1&RE=1. Look in the column labled "Access Laws."s -selling-solar.html
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Silicon! It's what's for power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Aten Solar just reduced their price to $3.00/peak Watt. These are lower efficiency panels so you'd want some yard space: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm. s -selling-solar.html
--
Register your home for solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Did your utility offer to buy electicity at the same rate you pay? We don't do business in SC because there is no net metering law.s -selling-solar.html
--
Rent Solar Power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
I understand now. I was considering placing the panels out of the way on the roof. This is convenient in the 41 states with net metering laws http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/03/net-metering.h tml. I agree with you that purchasing solar is a little better than
break even right now and you can probably find investments that return more. The way we do business is to rent the equipment for the power it produces at the rate you are paying now. You can fix the rate for up to 25 years, the amount of time a system would produce at above 80% rated power with maintenance included so that if the inverters break down (typical life: 15 years) they get replaced without charge.
All-electric cars are quite a bit cheaper to run counting fuel costs. With some reasonable assumptions about the cost of replacing batteries, they still seem to come out cheaper. But, they are still very expensive to purchase with very few on the road with a useful range. I expect the plug-in hybrid is going to get a large market share first with perhaps a 40 mile range between charges for all-electric operation. This is useful for some commutes, but it is not the 300 mile range rapid charge technology that could replace the ICE.
Amps are inversely proportional to volts once you fix the wattage, so your original spec on watts is the one to go with. Are you doing some day-night averaging? For the moment, I'm thinking of charging at night (under net metering) and I'd expect most of the time the system would be covered under a homeowner's policy. We are getting varied responses for our rental systems, but for a system that you own, policies ought to come at no extra cost. This is what we see when insurers do say they'll cover our systems.s -selling-solar.html
--
Rent solar power with no maintenence fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
What's more, much of the energy we consume is wasted because we use heat engines to convert it to more useful forms. So, using photovoltaics, we skip that step http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/04/green-numbers. html so things actually look even better than your calculation suggests.
s -selling-solar.html
--
Register your home for solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Most single storey houses have enough roof space to allow current silicon panels to both power the house (under net metering) and charge a plug-in hybrid. It does not take acres. If you have a taller house, you might need some yard space since you've got more floor per unit roof to power. Polymer panels may hit 10% efficiency befor to long. The current record is 6.5%http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19044/, so there is not all that far to go to catch up with
16-20% efficient silicon.s -selling-solar.html
--
Sprout silicon leaves: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Yes, it just seems to hang with seamonkey (64 bit) and FC6.
I found that switching to my own cable modem was not too much of a problem and the router works with that. After this is set up, any operating system will do. But, comcast is always the last bill I pay because I have to boot into windows to do it. You all charge a late fee so I don't feel bad about being late, but it is a pain that I can't do that bill together with the others and have to interupt sessions to finally get it paid.s -selling-solar.html
--
Switch to solar and get firefox compliant billing: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Seems to me that they could reach their goal faster by mimicking the lizard more closely. Watercross http://www.iwausa.org/ works basically by slapping the water already. Just automate and you are there.s -selling-solar.html
--
Solar power with no installation cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Yes, the main thing about having organic rich soil is that water is retained in way that is generally good for roots. It can also help to retain bioavailable nitrogen rather than having this leach out to the water supply. Putting charcoal in the soil tends to stablize the carbon (it does not rot to CO2 so quickly) while performing a similar service. Here are some other folks in Georgia working on this: http://www.eprida.com/hydro/ecoss/presentations/NH A/Poster_Handout.pdf.
It is still in startup mode. The site for the factory is selected and there is a transportation study started now. The timeline for starting installations was first quarter of 08, but I do not know how much can be done in terms of getting the pilot production line going while the study is ongoing. There is also a need for beta systems both to shake out the billing system and for UL approval. The modules for these will be built using cells from a third party supplier so only a portion of the line is needed for this. Since the CTO sits on the panels that write the standards, there shouldn't be an issue meeting them, but the line does have to exist. It is possible the schedule could slip as it has once already when the plant location changed owing to better state incentives.
But at least the linux version number is higher that the others. This is as it should be. Develop for linux first then port to the less important OSs.s -selling-solar.html
--
Rent solar power with no installation cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Yes, I think this could be good. We'll still need to reduce consumption though it we're going to get to the point where we are covering our liquid fuel use through domestic production.
Hope this helps and thanks for asking. I'm facinated by the potential of this model for a rapid transformation of how we produce energy. There are, however, real risks in getting involved in a startup. Risks for the customer are minimal, but getting more involved can lead to effort without payoff if the company is not successful. Remember that you can work with other slashdot users listed at http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
The news is that the Government has granted a permit. This means that things can get going. It also means that things were ready enough to get going that a permit application could be submitted.
s -selling-solar.html
The company I sell for is a start up as well and it is currently going through a transportation study. To do that, the full plant design has to be available so that the needs for shipping in and out, numbers of worker and their shifts can be integrated into the study. Things are pretty advanced at this stage. Financing has to be solid as well or why would the state engage in the study? So, the ethanol plant will be built and produce. It may not make a profit, something could go wrong, but I'd expect it to be built.
--
Register your home for solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Much of the water use for ethanol production comes in the form of irrigation. For forests this is not an issue. For fermentation you use about 10 times as much water as you produce in fuel because yeast does not tolerate a very high alcohol content. Portions of this water can be reused in principle since it is not all evaporated upon distilation. Wet mashes are being used more an more for feedlots located adjacent to distilleries. That is water reused for other purposes.
s -selling-solar.html
In this case, only enough water to produce syngas is used and this is eventually encorporated into the fuel http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_process. So, the water use is substantially less.
--
Switch to solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Rooted plants are not that efficient at converting sunlight to energy we can reuse. So, when you try to replace our liquid fuel use this way you end up only being able to do 20% or so. You can do better with algae but it seems to me we get better conversion efficiency using photovoltaics. There are two things going on. Algae may be able to get up to about half the efficiency of current PV panels but since the fuel will be used in a heat engine you take a hit that electricity does not run into. So, you need about 6 times more area for algae as for PV to make a car go the same distance. For rooted plants it is about 600 times more area than for PV. But that is land area we are already using for food for the most part so you end up with a limit on production owing to low efficiency even though there is plenty of energy coming in.s -selling-solar.html
--
Register your home for solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
I've linked to a paper that talks about brewing beer in a mushroom here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/07/toadstools.htm l. It is linked at the word "recursive".s -selling-solar.html
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Put solar panels over your mushroom cellar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
The usual claim is 10,000 gal/acre: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html. GreenFuel is getting about 6000 gal/acre biodiesel 5000 gal/arce ethanol with their pilot plant in AZ.s -selling-solar.html
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Solar power with no rate increases for up to 25 years: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Corn is a pretty good source of carbohdrates. The touble is that when it produces the carbohydrates it also produces protein http://www.kallipolis.com/diet/food.php?id=11168&w =3. It is the protein that needs nitrogen. In fact, talking with Tom Simpson from UMD
at a biofuels conference last May http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/05/juicing.html, I learned that you can wait to fertilize corn until
the ears set on. This can save money and also help to preserve water quality, but you need some pretty tall machinery to deliver the fertilizer.s -selling-solar.html
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Protein free solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
In this case, the residue is ash because the material is turned into a gas. This can still be used as a fertilizer but it is not the same as returning carbon to the soil: http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_process. s -selling-solar.html
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Solar power with no performance worries: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
They are actually going to gasification first: http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_process. The enzymes are expensive (and proprietary) http://www.iogen.ca/cellulose_ethanol/what_is_etha nol/process.html. The extra heat used here probably make the whole thing less efficient,
but it may still be less expensive. So far as I heard in May, the enzyme based method is not profitable yet.s -selling-solar.html
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Solar power is even more efficient: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Combining feedlots with ethanol distilleries is not unique to CA. This is becoming pretty standard. Remember, when you have mash left over, you are not converting cellulose (much). It is the sugar starch and caorbohydrate which is being used.s -selling-solar.html
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Solar power with no system purchase: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
These guys are going for ethanol though they also get some methanol, propanol and butanol. Look at step 2b here: http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_processs -selling-solar.html
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Solar power with no maintenance fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user