A couple of things about solar panels: 1. They are very very expensive. 2. The current technology seems to only convert Infrared into electricity. Wide spectrum conversion is being done, but only on the panels that go into space - that kind of panel is 10 times more expensive. I know someone that put together somewhere around 200 square feet of panels. Something like 20 foot wide by 10 feet. It works great. This time of year, for 8 to 10 hours a day it generates 2Kw - around noon as much as 2.5Kw. (cooling them with a wate hose will momentarily boost them up to 3Kw) As long as the sun is out. Cloud shadow drops output to less than 1Kw. The cost - and he got them REAL chep - was about 25,000 dollars. Then consider a $5K gadget that puts that energy back on the grid. At even fifteen cents per kilowatt hour - how long do you think it will take for this to pay itself off? (Answer: Longer than those panels last - unless the cost for electricity exceeds .30 /per Kw hour) The government needs to SERIOUSLY consider MAJOR R&D tax credits, but until then Think Nuclear - WaVy
On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:48 PM, RD Milhollin <rdmilhol...@charter.net> wrote: > This all smell like a plan of, by, and for the big corporate energy > providers. What about using all the empty roof-top space INSIDE the cities, > such as the roofs of malls, Walmarts, grocery stores, car lots, parking > lots, strip-centers, individual homes, apartment buildings etc. I can see > this as a job opportunity for the Barnett Shale "landmen" once all the > drillable real-estate is leased up. They could go from roof-owner to > roof-owner negotiating for "roof-rights" to set up solar panels for set > amounts of time. Shrewd building owners could bargain for a certain amount > of "free" electricity, since the juice coming off the roof is much more > consumer-friendly than crude oil or natural gas brought up by wells on > people's property. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* qui...@clearwire.net [mailto:qui...@clearwire.net] > *Sent:* Thursday, June 26, 2008 6:41 AM > *To:* o...@texascavers.com > *Subject:* [ot_caving] Texas solar power > > > > Well this is some info I found today pasted below. > > It comes from > http://environmenttexas.org/action/clean-energy/transmission?id4=ES > > > > I was interested in the numbers they say would power all of Texas. Just > FYI. > > Quinta > > > > Texas is the national leader in wind power and we have the potential to > meet the rest of our energy needs with solar power. In fact, if we put solar > panels on an area thirty miles by thirty miles in west Texas, we could > generate enough electricity to power the entire state at prices competitive > with new nuclear plants! > > > > But to bring all that clean wind and solar power from west Texas, we need > to invest in our transmission grid. Right now, the Public Utilities > Commission is deciding how much renewable energy transmission to build. > > > > The most ambitious plan they're looking at would create transmission > capacity for almost an additional 18,000 megawatts of wind and solar power, > which would reduce smog pollution from power plants by 13% and global > warming pollution by 16%. > > > > >
