Article

2007-08-23 Science & Technology

IAUS Believes New Breakthrough Solar Panel Can Change the World

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Posted by Anonymoose 2007-08-23 11:18|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 In general, I expect there's a fair amount of 'hype' in any of these kinds of reports. However, there is usually also at least a kernal of substance.
Significantly, this is at least the third independent development of what appear to be 'significant' (not radical, earth-shattering, but meaningful) advances in solar power that I have seen in the past month or so. As one would expect, the large and sustained increase in oil prices has given a big boost to R&D in fields of alternative energy like solar. As solar energy efficiencies rise and costs decline, more and more 'fringe' applications will be economically favorable for solar: for years low load, geographically isolated locations have employed solar power; we will see application for ever higher loads and less isolated locations attracting it now. As the use increases we should see economies of scale build, further enhancing the economics of the market and fueling even more R&D and competitiveness.
While I might or might not buy THIS company's stock, I would certainly invest in a basket of companies with promising solar (and battery or other storage) technologies.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-08-23 13:16|| 2007-08-23 13:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Suppose they had the perfect solar panel. Right now about the only use I see would be to heat up the hot water or something! Practically speaking nobody is going to do the battery thing, it's too consuming and too expensive. Nobody's going to do the "thermal mass" thing, there are too many pre-existing houses out there. Can the power created by these panels be efficiently converted to something that can be pumped back out your power meter and thereby sold to your neighbor or to that power-hungry business down the street? That would be the killer app for these, I feel. That and running my A/C during the summer! :-)

And we'd still need some serious surge capacity for cloudy days, eclipses, or places that have more power consumption than production.

This would be great for reducing CO2. And there could be no issues with "waste heat" or whatever that the environmentalists would cook up next because all that energy produced from this technology would normally go into heating up my rooftop anyway, it's just that this way we take advantage of it along the way, much like water falling over a dam.

Posted by gorb 2007-08-23 15:45|| 2007-08-23 15:45|| Front Page Top

#3 As solar energy efficiencies rise and costs decline

That's MSM-worthy. Report that A (rising efficiency) is occuring. Imply a relationship with B (declining costs, which is what matters). Then continue as if you had shown B (declining costs) was occuring.

Sorry to pick on you, Glenmore, but this is just a press release feeding the general ignorance surrounding the subject. Wake me up when they produce a rooftile sized solar panel that costs just the same as a clay rooftile. Or even better a rooftile that absorbs sunlight below 20C and reflects it above 25C. That would produce huge savings in home heating and air conditioning costs and indeed change the world.

Posted by phil_b 2007-08-23 16:25|| 2007-08-23 16:25|| Front Page Top

#4 I saw a study once that said that a 10% efficient panel that costs $4/watt to buy and install and has $0.01/watt/yr maintenance costs would be a super purchase (something like 1.3 NPV) by shopping mall owners in the SW of the US.

Posted by mhw">mhw 2007-08-23 17:11|| http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/]">[http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/] 2007-08-23 17:11|| Front Page Top

#5 SCIENCE > SUN SOUNDS/WAVES CAN CAUSE EARTHQUAKES, + HUGE HOLE FOUND IN UNIVERSE, SCIENTISTS PUZZLED.
*D ***nged CARS PLUS, D ***ng PRINCE, HIS PURPLENESS IS LEACHING AND STAINING THE PACIFIC AND OUTER SPACE. RUINING COMETS AND AN OTHERWISE PERFECTLY CLEAN, PAUL SIMON NECKTIE, MOUDIAN APOCALYPSE! Yet another Oliver Stone production of almost a Lindsay Lujan = Lohan film, NOT starring JLo or Carmen Electra??? Ya see what your McDonald's Double Big Macs did, Moriarty!?

Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-08-23 22:58|| 2007-08-23 22:58|| Front Page Top

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