Solar-power sunrise

Eco Author Chris Eldridge — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 02:02:16 GMT

Going green is great for more reasons than people realize. The head of the Union of Atomic Scientists (the keepers of the Doomsday Clock) only gave the world a 50% chance of survival this century due to war, ecological collapse, climate change, and terrorism as rampant as computer viruses. With this in mind, we CANNOT afford to only address one of these potential problems at a time. Preparations for any disaster are often good for any other type of disaster and living efficiently and SELF-SUFFICIENCY on a very local level (where solar fits in) are the most important keys TO ALL of them!

Solar-power sunrise

Francois — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:39:28 GMT

Storing solar power is rather beside the point. Maximum US energy demand occurs in the summer between 11 am and 4 pm when the air conditioners kick in, which happens to be when solar power is most effective. Solar would seem to do well at peak shaving because demand from industry and offices is high right when it's most effective.

A healthy mix of energy sources would include solar, wind, tide, perhaps some gas turbines for peak loads, and nuclear for baseline demand.

Solar-power sunrise

John Doe, Seattle, Wash — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:52:21 GMT

You wrote, "In Ridgewood, N.J., a Whole Foods store struck a deal with Sun Edison . . . Sun Edison pays the cost of putting in the equipment; in return, Whole Foods agrees to buy the power from Sun Edison for 20 years."

The day when 50 major cities across the USA have similar offerings for residential customers is the day when solar power takes its rightful place. Until then we will be subjected to subsidized lower cost energy from countries and companies whose only goal is the enrichment of shareholders and the executives that run those companies.

Solar-power sunrise

J, Sarasota, FL — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:06:52 GMT

Just wait until Nanosolar makes it way out. www.nanosolar.com

Solar-power sunrise

Peter Wilson — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:40:22 GMT

"In Germany, solar-energy subsidies have..."

Subsidies are not the answer. Government subsidies always have unintended consequences. We are in the mess we are in because of subsidies.

Solar-power sunrise

Scott, Gretna, La — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:09:08 GMT

I have been pricing tie-in systems. The cost of power here has gotten so crazi, I figure a system would pay for itself in about nine years. Another great aspect of these systems is that they can provide a much safer back-up source during power outages than generators.

Solar-power sunrise

OneVoice — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:15:32 GMT

Glad you mentioned other related technologies such as storage cells that will also be needed to develop a well rounded solution. Another interesting tech that could augment solar systems are thermo-electric semiconductors. Imagine having a secondary layer underneath of a rooftop solar array which generates electricity in the morning and at night due to temperature differential. This technology could double the efficiency of home solar systems.

Solar-power sunrise

Dan Elliott — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:34:45 GMT

The sun generates enough electricity to power the world many times over each day in the form of heat energy transformed into thunderstorms. And there is no thunder without lightning. Each lightning stroke has enough energy to power my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, USA for a couple of days. There are approximately 10,000 thunderstorms in progress at any given moment worldwide. How do we capture and store this and then diseminate it into the power grid? I think that is an avenue definitely worth exploring. Kansas on a hot summer day could supply the entire country with power. All we need to do is capture it.

Solar-power sunrise

Mr. Miyagi, Salt Lake City, Utah — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:48:47 GMT

I really like the array of sunlight collectors in California that focus the sunlight on a tower that produces boiling water to run a generator. That technology is amazing and should be as wide spread as possible.

Solar-power sunrise

Bill Ashby, Milwaukee Wisconsin — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:36:37 GMT

Forget about energy storing for the moment. Francois is right on. Back in the late 90's i was involved in Y2k testing software applications at Wisconsin Electric (SE Wisconsin). One was basically a dashboard that displayed usage history and energy production cost by plant. The thing that struck me was that fully one third of the Peak demand by hour was for only 50 hours a year. as i recall for peak was 6,000 megawatts per hour. The other 8,710 hours of the year electric demand was between 2,000 and 4,000 megawatts. WE has two nuclear power plants that are rated at 500 meg each. So for 50 hours a year we need to ramp up and deliver, transmit, 4 nuclear power plants worth of electricity. 50 hours! What is the true cost of that 50 hours of electricity. Things would change rather quickly if the "true" cost of a kw were charged during that time. But instead we average it all out so it is less painful. Think how many power plants of any kind would be avoided even being built. This is where solar power could help us the most.

Solar-power sunrise

Alan Boyle — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:21:55 GMT

Hi, Keith, I should have provided a bit more detail on the German farmer's solar-power operation. That $60,000 is profit after covering debt service, etc. I believe the total annual revenue from the system is in the neighborhood of $500,000, if I recall the show correctly.

Solar-power sunrise

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 03:31:43 GMT

Power sources must operate on a continuous timeline, even though power use fluctuates by the minute overall. We need sources -- wind, water, tide, solar, etc. -- which produce electricity sporadically for local use, and nuclear plants producing electricity continuously, established in an international grid. The use of fire is the first sign of civilisation. Let us hope its imminent extinguishing will mark our next step into the future.

Solar-power sunrise

Travis Mullica Hill, NJ — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:36:27 GMT

If you can't afford to put solar panels on your roof, there are many other more affordable things you can do around your house. Other than the most obvious of keeping your shades down during the day in summer and reverse in winter (Many people ignore this obvious fact!) You can easliy construct a "solar cooker" out of household materials. Also, if I know I am cooking pasta for dinner, I put my black pot with water and a glass lid on my deck before I leave for work in the morning. When I get home, it is very close to boiling! There are very cheap portable solar energy panels that you can put out in the sun and then plug small appliances into (as little as $49) There are even cheaper ones you can suction-cup to your car window that will recharge you car batteries. If you just google "solar energy" or "solar cookers" or "solar electricity" you will be astonished at the ideas and/or products available to take advantage of the free solar energy! I am learning more every day how to maximize it until someday I will put solar panels on my roof!

Solar-power sunrise

Lee Valentine — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:42:27 GMT

An excellent article by Prof G.K. O'Neill of Priinceton, arguing that the best solution for energy supply to the Earth is Satellite Solar Power, is reprinted on the Space Studies Institute's website: ssi.org.

Interestingly, at the Space Investment Summit last Tuesday in New York, John Vornle made the case that Satellite Solar Power would be competitive with ground based solar under the ground rules governing purchase of alternative electricity sources in Germany. Under those rules electricity is purchased at the price of about $0.85 per kilowatt hour. That is about ten times the price that consumers in the U.S. pay now. So, it is not really an economic proposition with present-day launch costs.

It is interesting that Wall Street is thinking about SSP. I expect real excitement when
fully reusable launchers appear. The annual worldwide market for electrical power stations is $400 billion. Much of that demand could be handled by SSP stations. When people with real money to invest realize the magnitude of the opportunity, power satellites could appear quickly.

This is one export market that the U.S. is well positioned to compete for.

Solar-power sunrise

Delmar Fairchild, Barron, Wisconsin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:18:08 GMT

The talk of harnessing the Sun is something I think about every day when I pay my electric bill. It can be done and should be done.

However, if I may, I would like to share some other thoughts on the Sun's energy not entirely related to paying our electric bill. The Sun is the great master of our lives. Many past cultures worshipped it because it was so masterful. It will help us or it will kill us.

At this time, we are at the mercy of conditions we have just started to understand. The Milky Way Galaxy has been found being magnetically pulled towards another giant galaxy creating a shock wave like a bullet going through air. This shock wave is radiation flowing around our Milky Way like a stream around a rock. Our solar system actually resonates up and down from the plane of our Milky Way while it is hurtling toward this giant. Our solar system comes in contact with this shock wave of radiation every 500,000 or so years. This cycle corresponds to many of the major events on our planet, like two recent extinctions. There is an article on this on the web today and is interesting reading. Our solar system is rising above the plane of the Milky Way now. So in effect it will be going into the radiation shock wave.
The next solar cycle of our own Sun (from article on the Web today) is starting now and scheduled to peak in 2012. By what chance is it that 2012 is the same time that the Mayan Calendar ends its cycle on December 21st of that year?

If you are as old as I am, you will remember the guy we've all seen in cartoons that walk the streets with the sign that says, "Repent, the end is near".

If what all this could lead up to is actually happening today and we find out for sure in 2012, we won't need to worry about Mr. Gore's carbon credits anymore, the sun itself will make a lot of carbon on Earth.

Solar-power sunrise

Delmar Fairchild, Barron, Wisconsin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:32:07 GMT

I am sorry for the misquote above. I put in 500,000 years as a cycle in my post above, while it is a 64 million year cycle.

Solar-power sunrise

Mark Massey, Gainesville, FL — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:57:25 GMT

funny, the issue that most all people fail to realize is that it takes more energy (in the from of oil) to product a solar cell than that said solar will ever product in it's life time. Thus creating more dependency on oil.

Solar-power sunrise

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:16:24 GMT

The Province of Ontario has just announced the forthcoming installation of a Solar Energy Farm near Sarnia,ON, which is across the border from Port Huron, Michigan, north of Detroit. It will take a few years to establish and is slated to produce enough magawatts to power about 8,000 homes. That, and the awarding of the Benjamin Franklin medal to the Canadian facility at Sudbury which has succeeded in measuring the mass of neutrinos, an award previously won by Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein, gives me hope that we may yet escape from the End of the World which Stephen Hawking worries about. Continuous carping on the part of us, the people, does influence government after all.

By the way, the fact that neutrinos have measurable mass fills in a gaping hole in the theory of quantum energy.

Solar-power sunrise

Andreas Holzenburg, Bryan, TX — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:32:34 GMT

Using solar power is not about $$, it is about giving us a chance to topple emissions. Emissions that will ultimately cost us very dearly - in any dimension conceivable.
It is unfortunate that all action items that lower CO2 emissions will prove unpopular, like driving a car with a small engine, building up public transport, raising the temperature in AC controlled accommodation, converting to non-fossil energy sources etc.

Giving up conveniences is hard and can only be achieved, if the entire society were ready to embrace this change (e.g. ride the bicycle to work). This is a huge challenge because the only rival present in this dispute resides within ourselves.

Is it worth it ?

Make no mistake - it'll bite us in our backsides if we waited a second longer. We need to change and solar power is one (there are many others) of the channels to embrace the adjustments we need to make in order to support life on the this planet as we know and cherish it.

Solar-power sunrise

Bill Ashby, Milwaukee — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:07:49 GMT

Mark Massey step away from the key board...at least until you do your home work.
Energy Payback 3-4 years for current technology... in the near future the nanosolar guys are claiming < 1 month.

Producing electricity with photovoltaics (PV) emits no pollution, produces no greenhouse gases and uses no finite fossil fuel resources. These are great environmental benefits, but just as we say that it takes money to make money, it also takes energy to save energy. This concept is captured by the term “energy payback,” or how long a PV system must operate to recover the energy-and associated generation of pollution and CO2-that went into making the system in the first place.

Energy payback estimates for rooftop PV systems boil down to 4, 3, 2, and 1 years: 4 years for systems using current multicrystalline-silicon PV modules, 3 years for current thin-film modules, 2 years for future multicrystalline modules, and 1 year for future thin-film modules. With energy paybacks of 1–4 years and assumed life expectancies of 30 years, 87% to 97% of the energy that PV systems generate will be free of pollution, greenhouse gases, and depletion of resources. Let’s take a look at how the 4-3-2-1 paybacks were estimated for current and future PV systems.

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1119

Solar-power sunrise

greg glessner — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:58:07 GMT

As soon as government gets out of the oil industries pockets, you will see an invention that will make all others seem antique.I happen to know all about this field that will replace all forms of energy exept for storing and distributing it.It falls against deaf ears in a country as "in crowd oriented as ours"

Solar-power sunrise

Tarun, Chandigarh, Chandigarh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 08:56:22 GMT

HELLO! THERE IS ANY MACHINERY OR ELECTRONIC GADGET FOR MAKING ELECTRICIY THROUGH SUN RAYS.......

Solar-power sunrise

Phil De Rosa White Rock, Bc, Canada — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:33:37 GMT

Dan Elliot --- Where is Benjamin Franklin when we need him?

Solar-power sunrise

nayandeep — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:25:57 GMT

please tell something about big bang?