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PV will be the ultimate winner, but a robust portfolio of renewable technologies will yield the best overall results. The proponents of coal and nuclear are hopeless Luddites.
There is a very high probability that solar is a mature technology, with little chance of further breakthroughs.
Solar panels first showed up in 1936. The research really got going in the 1960's with the space program and defense needs. There has been very intense research efforts for almost 60 years in the development of solar panels.
The solar panels I use are are 30 years old. There are IDENTICAL to the panels being sold today. Over all those years there have been thousands of breakthroughs coming so soon.....and nothing.
For solar panels to be a "ultimate" winner their efficiency needs to go up by a factor of three or four. Quite frankly I am skeptical that is going to happen.
Not sure I am a Luddite, but I am definitely not one that believes in fairy tales. As Ian Tyson said "wishing don't make it so".
I'm not impressed. 2 x lousy = still pretty lousy.
That doubling of efficiency in 56 yrs is actually only an improvement of 14%.
Cost is all artificial. Remember when digital watches were $10,000? Two yrs later they were free with a fill-up at Purple Martin.
Production cost of solar cells have fallen because they used to be made by PhDs in CA. Now they're produced by child laborers in China. (And PV power Still costs 3x grid power.)
I'm not impressed. 2 x lousy = still pretty lousy.
That doubling of efficiency in 56 yrs is actually only an improvement of 14%.
Cost is all artificial. Remember when digital watches were $10,000? Two yrs later they were free with a fill-up at Purple Martin.
Production cost of solar cells have fallen because they used to be made by PhDs in CA. Now they're produced by child laborers in China. (And PV power Still costs 3x grid power.)
Efficiency just about doubled since 1992. That is 25 years. And PPA prices (bulk utility purchase) have dropped from about $200 per Megawatt hour to $25 per megawatt hour. Even in the states they are now under $40 per megawatt hour. With fossil fule faciliites mostly over $50 per mgawatt hour it is all over but the shouting.
PV production in the main is a highly automated process with little labor content. The labor is virtually all at the installation end. And there are likely enough new things coming to drop it again by two or more.
And the cost of PV is now 1/3 of grid power and dropping.
You luddites need to get with the program...wind and solar are here now and going to dominate.
Efficiency just about doubled since 1992. That is 25 years. And PPA prices (bulk utility purchase) have dropped from about $200 per Megawatt hour to $25 per megawatt hour. Even in the states they are now under $40 per megawatt hour. With fossil fule faciliites mostly over $50 per mgawatt hour it is all over but the shouting.
PV production in the main is a highly automated process with little labor content. The labor is virtually all at the installation end. And there are likely enough new things coming to drop it again by two or more.
And the cost of PV is now 1/3 of grid power and dropping.
You luddites need to get with the program...wind and solar are here now and going to dominate.
So what do you call a "Luddite" that has owned a solar home for 20 years??
A unrepentant "Luddite" or somebody that has seen the future and realized that it doesn't work??
So what do you call a "Luddite" that has owned a solar home for 20 years??
A unrepentant "Luddite" or somebody that has seen the future and realized that it doesn't work??
Ones mind can slip at any point. In a way I too am a Luddite. I have professionally followed Solar PV for something like 50 years. Yet I have turned it down every time I have looked at it on economic grounds. Interestingly enough if I was 15 or 20 years younger it has now reached to point where I would consider a DIY. Went over it with my favorite contractor and it is feasible today. Was not ten years ago.
When you did it of course it was because you were trying to live where comfort is very difficult or it was a religious experience. But I don't do either. I was going to run away on a boat when I got to that state...but unfortunately my legs failed before the rest of me and it became hopelessly impractical.
Over 22 thousand MW of PV installed in the US at the end of 2016. About 80 thousand MW of wind.
Ok. we will try this.....
The ONLY reason I can have a "solar house" is most of my energy needs are taken care with PROPANE.
The ONLY reason people can have "solar grid homes" is most of their electrical needs are met by fossil fuels....
the Northwest excepted....my city house is 100% carbon free thanks to the Columbia River. It is my "solar house" that is NOT carbon free, and in fact generates more carbon by a infinite percentage than my city house.
The ONLY reason I can have a "solar house" is most of my energy needs are taken care with PROPANE.
The ONLY reason people can have "solar grid homes" is most of their electrical needs are met by fossil fuels....
the Northwest excepted....my city house is 100% carbon free thanks to the Columbia River. It is my "solar house" that is NOT carbon free, and in fact generates more carbon by a infinite percentage than my city house.
The goal isn't carbon free. That's just a straw man. In Washington DC I can build a grid connected net zero house if I choose to do so, but my approach includes 50% wind in my energy mix. If everyone made such a choice the US will meet it's climate change goal.
The community's success is that new coal fired capacity plants are not being built and several thousand MW of coal fired plants are being shut down every year.
My guess is your city house is not carbon free as no NW utility gets 100% of its energy from Columbia River hydro, but if that fiction fits your narrative, hang in their.
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