Comments on: Good news on solar power?

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:17:34 +0000

I think, for the good of the industry, one must be very careful not to buy into the “hype”.

It is a long way from “trying” to a commercial product. A long way, especially with a potential product that uses an untested process.

First the product must “work”
Then it must work cost effectively
Then it must be tested to be long tern durable
etc etc

It is NOT that simple, or else everyone would have done it.

By: bhyde

bhyde — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:04:18 +0000

Yeah, I guess the question was rhetorical. Take your subsidies where you can get ‘em. I’m all for subsidies to help accelerate this stuff. But yet; presumably these panels in a better location would output 3-5 times more energy. That’s a lot of subsidy.

I like that North African scheme as well, though not as much as geo thermal generation; which I think is just plain fun. Particularly if you combine it with fire-less steam engines; then it’s pure entertainment.

By: Gregor J. Rothfuss

Gregor J. Rothfuss — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:48:35 +0000

Germany has huge subsidies on solar, which shuffles solar cells away from more efficient locations.

Me, I am excited about this project in northern Africa: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/02/renewableenergy.solarpower

By: Steve Loughran

Steve Loughran — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:09:37 +0000

-I know one of the people there, Marv Keshner. Nanosolar focuses on cost/metre rather than watts/metre, using bulk printing processes rather than foundry processes. If they get it right, you get solar power for the consumer at less than retail electricity. Remember, its not the cost/watt for a power station feeding the grid that matters, its whether its cheaper to have solar on your roof than get AC from a wire.

as to why east germany -.de has a policy on electrons that allows you to pump spare ones back into the grid at a fixed (and nice) cost. If you have spare electricity during periods of the day, you can share them with others for money. Its why germany is ahead of the rest of europe, even though france, italy and spain are sunnier.