Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarpop
There are plenty of people who live off grid using solar and wind to generate power. One of the points in requiring passive solar building specs, is that you don't require NEARLY as much electricity, because the houses don't need indoor heating and cooling.
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Which addresses a fundamental (underlying) problem. Energy is so cheap that less than two of every ten gallons of gasoline actually move the car. More like one in ten for SUVs. Those other 8+ gallons was totally wasted - do nothing productive because gasoline was never expensive.
Buildings that are properly insulated would be 12 inches (30 cm) in the ceiling and more than 4 inches (10 cm) in walls - fiberglass. Currently, new commercial buildings use about 3 inches in the ceiling and only 1.5 inches in walls. And using insulation that is inferior to fiberglass - ie styrofoam.
Running off the grid means no vampire appliances. Any small current consumers when not home (clocks, powered off computers, etc) means the power inverter cannot power off; still consumes significant power. Technology also demands reservoirs for energy.
Mass production solar cells typically only convert 10% of energy to electricity. Better technologies that approach 40 and 50% are extremely expensive. That $30,000 installation is probably cheap and inefficient solar cells. Once we get past the hype, current technology is impractical.
Martian rovers use the best and most efficient solar cells available and the most energy efficient electric consuming devices. After many years, their energy production was only enough to move maybe 10 miles. Your stove cooking a vegetable probably consumes more energy than a Rover can create in a week.
Naysayers would read that and see negativity. Those who read it properly see massive opportunity for technological breakthroughs. What creates recessions? A shortage of such innovations.
Current solar cell installations are impractical without tax breaks. However, Germany is attempting to do what innovators do - see future profits and not what accountants measure. Germany expects to dominate the solar cell industry. Germany is simply doing what venture capitalists do in CA and what highly paid American bankers are totally incapable of doing.
Appreciate the concept. We must do tomorrow the same using less energy and resources. That is always what a world power does. IOW solar cells by themselves are not a solution. Simply look at how pathetically defective even our new buildings and cars are because energy to so ridiculously cheap. Because so many believe in consumption and wealth rather than innovation and what creates wealth.
So what are some of the promising technologies? One is a solar cell that can be printed like rolls of paper. Another breakthrough was achieved by collaborating scientists in Australia and Netherlands to reflect light inside a cell so that more light frequencies can be converted to electricity. Still, a breakthrough to lower costs is still not apparent. Costs are serious part of the problem that include the amount of energy necessary to make, transport, install, and maintain solar cells.
Nobody lives the high energy consumption living standards and remains off the grid; without spending hundred of $thousands just on solar cells and the necessary support equipment. We are not even close yet. Solutions require more than new energy producers. Even how we cook would have to change. But then it all comes down to the only thing that also prevents recessions like the one we will soon suffer - innovation.
Meanwhile, critical parts of any infastructure (ie electric distribution) should be installed so that sereve weather does not crash the system. For example, I believe most of the UK is buried electric.