Hot thin roofs
What’s your take on the new solar energy products such as Nanosolar’s thin film systems? Do you think solar power will ever be affordable?
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DiggI would hope that it becomes affordable.As soon as it does I will buy it. Can’t wait
Solar power has been affordable and used on government buildings,plus…. since the early 60’s, just depends on how the media wants the perception of the idea to come across to the consumer!!
With all the engineers I know working on alternative energy, I have no doubt solar will be affordable and common throughout the US/world just as it now is in Germany, who happens to be at the same latitude as I am in Oregon, the “rainy” state.
Gumby, I would like to talk with you about your invention.Possibly, I can help you Williamgalt.2aol.com.
As an Architect I have been encouraging alternate energy sources for many, many years. The drawback to use was the upfront costs, maintenance and to a degree the modified lifestyle required. My mantra for the same period of time was that when new technology came forth the costs would make alternated energies viable. I believe that we will see even greater leaps in science so as to make the systems more and more efficient and, available. Should Nanosolar’s product prove successful, great! I hope its just the start.
In areas that see enough usable sunlight it will eventually be the norm. Nano technology will play a big part in the efficiency of it, possibly to the point that the amount of sunlight may not be as big a factor as it is now.
We seldom see sun for months on end–I doubt that it would be efficient enough to make it affordable!
ABSOLUTELY! It’s a no-brainer! Whenever
there is a strong demand + need + emotional investment + financial benefits + mass enthusiasm + an increase in the quality of life any scientific advancement will be “fast tracked”……..For years the main stream “snikered” at those who could envision the new “Smart Age”…….look who’se snickering now!
Obviously it took “pain in the immediate pocket book” to get our attention! (among other things)
why dose it take so long to make something that will help our planet?
if it was something that will hert it it would be massproduced overnight.
I dont get it..
Polysilicon PV will win over thin film in the end. Why? Polysilicon PV is twice as efficient as thin film. There’s not enough room on a residential rooftop for thin film technology to harvest the amount of power needed by the average household. Thin film companies such as Nanosolar attempt to downplay this simple fact by publishing the watts per panel on their online products pages, but not the physical dimensions!
So the existing thin film products are only useful for large-scale power plants sited on cheap land (e.g., in deserts). But there, solar thermal is better because it has sustained output after the sun initially goes down.
The real future for solar is rooftops, for which polysilicon is much better suited. Rooftop solar is quickly deployed (no power plant approvals needed, no large budgets needed), requires no new grid infrastructure, can be deployed in small increments, and puts the power generation right where it’s consumed. This is the place to invest — and soon or you’ll be too late.
The dream is to have a solar powered home independent of any utility. The reality is likely slow conversion to field arrays by utilities to be the probable wave of the future. As long as there is a utility with stockholders there will be profits that need to be upheld for them. If solar becomes an affordable do-it-yourself project from Home Depot, there will be a lot of them sold. Nanosolar sounds like that sort of promise. I hope it is true.
I have an solar invention that is so simple for a very unusual applicatoin never thought of before by anybody, honest… It is on display in my backyard yet nobody is exactly knocking on my door with a contract and a pen yet… My invention capture easily over half of the available solar energy hitting it . Yet no one is interested because billions are already invested in already obsolete PV prototypes…. Mine is not PV at all.. It is so simple and it is incredible…. I plan to increase the capacity of my invention this summer for 100% independence from heating costs next winter and forever on… My invention if adopted widely may disrupt our economy by tens of billions of dollars if not more… My invention is a real threat to the existence of the prevalent solar industry… It will be severely limited in future growth if my invention takes off.. I see helicopters hovering my property more lately….They must be sweating on their foreheads….
There is two paths for solar energy, off grid or on grid… Off grid mean like portable types that you can move around with you anywhere and on grid mean permanent installations like on rooftops and building tops and hooked up to electric meters by means of required expensive inverters so not to muck up with the sine wave cycle timing of the grid. I think the first and best avenue to go solar is to sell anything that comes with off grid (portable) pv modules or foils whatever…. We already are doing that with security lights, highway call boxes, remote outposts for monitioring stuff, etc. We can do more with like room air conditioners with own PV module kit attached so we dont need to keep our central air conditioning on all day as we usually occupy a room at any given time.. Or just a direct separate source of electricity with own coded electric outlets and a battery backup to collect for any burst usage.. I dont care very much for installing inverters which is too expensive and it requires costly union paid installers to set it up and the hassle of getting permits from utilties…. Solar is great when you need it right away instead of trying to peddle it back to the utility which usually drain some juice out of your solar production as it goes through the power sapping inverters and meters… Keep it simple and solar will go farther…
While I love your article, I think it needs to be pointed out that Nanosolar does not want to work with anyone unless they are the absolute biggest utility on the planet. Various people I know have tried to contact them for information and simply get the cold winds of Antarctica shoulder. They talk about keeping people informed, only to send messages that make it seem like only the biggest customers matter, and the thing that is so ironic about this situation is that in an industry that is exploding in growth, to say that one place or another is not good enough might just take them out of contention that might be the biggest new thing. That is the downside for writing people, organizations off without knowing how, what, where or why they are doing something.
Yes, I can understand if an organization is busy trying to ramp up or fulfill orders, but it would be like Fortune saying, we only want readers that are CEOs and only advertisers of Fortune 100-based businesses. Ten years ago, people would not have known who Google is and say they wanted to buy advertising in your magazine, would you have found out what they were and given them any chance? Magazines like Fortune are one of the any reasons why people start businesses today. They learn, evaluate, aspire, and when they finally do achieve, they end up in Fortune, inspiring a whole new generation of business leaders.
The energy industry is probably never going to go away, so to act all high and mighty that only the biggest matter, they have cast themselves as no more than a fad, rather than a good design. Good design stands the test of time, while a fad is just design that wants to make a quick buck, while the opportunity is available. Nanosolar has put itself in the latter category, just with their attitude.
Please keep writing articles like this. One day, as much of what you write is commonplace, people will realize that without your coverage of this, it never would have gotten the traction it needed to become reality.
Yes, we can. If we can send people to the moon and bring them back safely, harnessing solar energy is something we can definitely do. If we can spend trillions of dollars to find more deadly weapons, we can surely harness solar energy for a fraction of that cost. That will also help reduce the number of reasons our politicians use for going to war.
Nanosolar’s flexible solar systems will find a place in the market place for new construction where it is cheaper than replacing current power systems. The cheapest way for consumers will be field arrays that feed power into power stations instead of placing solar on every house.
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Gumby, I am also interested to hear more about your system ideators@gmail.com