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View Full Version : Solar Power for the masses!


CodecX81
Mar 21st, 2006, 05:54 PM
Solar power a plenty!! Times, they are a changin'

Solar Energy Power plant to be built in Nevada (http://www.poweronline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid={4908EB91-3618-4EA0-A0D5-82A8310B83DC}&VNETCOOKIE=NO)
Solargenix Energy, LLC, a leading provider in the design, manufacture, integration and deployment of Solar Thermal Renewable Systems, using cutting-edge solar technology, will locate its new 65 MW Solar Thermal Power Plant in Southern Nevada.

The primary strategic plan of Solargenix Energy is to design, market and manufacture, as well as install and maintain, solar systems incorporating proprietary and patented technology capable of producing hot water, steam or electricity for residential, industrial, institutional, commercial and utility customers.

Israel Testing out super-conductor Solar Cells (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/1000_suns_from.php)
Israel’s National Solar Energy Center will start testing a 400 square meter (4,300 sq ft) solar collecting dish. The huge dish is capable of achieving 1000 suns — it can concentrate the intensity of the sun's energy by a factor of a thousand.

According to a study the center's director, professor David Faiman, published last year, mass producing dish systems like the Sede Boker model would cost less than $1,000 per kilowatt to produce -- the cost of a typical, fossil-fuel burning plant.

go leafs
Mar 21st, 2006, 06:00 PM
for ON

McGuinty unveiled a new program to broaden the use of renewable electricity projects in Ontario.

The program allows homeowners, municipalities and businesses to set up wind turbines or solar panels and sell the energy to Ontario’s power grid for a fixed price: 42 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar power, 11 cents for wind and other forms of green electricity.

The program, expected to bring an additional 1,000 megawatts of green power into the grid over the next 10 years, will put Ontario at the “absolute forefront in North America” in the use of renewable energy, Suzuki said.

Bullseye
Mar 21st, 2006, 06:03 PM
I assume you heard about the Ontario governments announcement today to encourage solar power as well? They will start paying anyone with a solar setup $.42/kwh for power they send to the grid. I'm curious to see all the details of it, but it looks like a decent incentive.

The problem with solar is that it is not constant like fossil fuels or hydroelectric, so if it is to ever be more than a supplementary power source, a suitable storage medium needs to be found. I think it would work well in conjunction with hydrogen, ie. when the sun shines, it powers the process for making hydrogen, which can be stored. The hydrogen could then be used to run vehicles, homes, factories, etc. The technology for this is already there, it's just the cost that is prohibitive.

Bullseye
Mar 21st, 2006, 06:04 PM
Cross posted with 'go leafs'!

ShadowVlican
Mar 21st, 2006, 07:24 PM
about damn time... it's year 2006 damnit

Crotchety Old Man
Mar 21st, 2006, 08:21 PM
Don't tell me that you believe in The Solar Fraud (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971484546/qid=1142990134/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0043183-9449619?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)?!?

Bullseye
Mar 21st, 2006, 10:03 PM
So some guy writes a fringe book, probably only selling a few thousand copies, using a 'hook' subject and title, and we're supposed to accept that as the Final Word on solar? I don't think so.