very interesting story. something that i have preached all along that no one solution will provide all the answers, but one of the obvious things i see is local solar energy capture stations.

we should have solar on every roof in the country and we should be taxing gas right now to pay for it. putting it in the hands of the citizen to add it to their house like a swimming pool in the back yard is a pathetic idea and preached by energy concerns because they know that that system would take decades to get a foothold here.

then after that, lets put up some wind stations. paint em in your fave color if you think they are ugly. newer high efficiency generators are practically silent without the noise of the first generation generators...hmmm...that sounds funny...

yep these are all drops in a bucket... but drops will still fill the bucket faster than not refilling it at all

David:

An excellent point. Too bad it will never happen. Can't have us consumers too independent.

Jay

Electricity made from solar photovoltaic cells is a good bit more expensive than coal because making the silicon cells for this purpose is itself very expensive.

But solar thermal collectors running a Stirling engine have just been shown to be able to produce electricity cheaper than coal in terms of pence per kilowatt-hour - which is something of a breakthrough.

With wind power over here in Europe closing in on 1 cent per kWh as well, the days of fossil-fuels being cheaper than renewables is fast running out.

The most sustainable and cost-effective energy is sunlight - shines almost every day with no up front cost.

Pay-back or "break even" point on photovoltaics, five to seven years. Pay back is even faster when conservation is implemented first - it is always cheaper to hold onto what you already have vs. going and getting more.

Too bad most folks haven't figured that one out yet.

Why not solar both at work and at home? We have a full solar photovoltaic and water heating system in our house. During the day, the solar system produces more electricity than the house needs (in "idle" mode), so the surplus is fed back into the city grid and our city meter runs backwards. We are using the city grid as giant battery. When we come home, our city meter has been running backwards all day, so a goodly portion of the juice we use in the evening has already been produced and paid for by our solar system.
As for cost analysis: it's hard to make comparisons because with solar, you are paying up front for years of (otherwise) free energy. The deal is this: upfront, you are paying in today's dollars for tomorrow's energy. Electricty will only become more expensive in the future, but with solar, you are covered because you already have electrical generation in place.
We figure that if our electricty rates doubled, we would still be paying less for energy on a monthly basis than we were before we installed solar.
Another cost thing no one seems to consider: solar water heating and photovoltaic systems will add their purchase and installation costs to the value of your home. Our total system costs including installation has been added to the resale value of the house. Again, this is like paying up front for a capital gain later. The added value to our house will itself increase as energy costs go up, so that it may actually add more value to the house than it costs us to install. A win win.
Bob

Bob:

All very true.

Unfortunately, at least around here, folks still appear to be a lot more interested in things like gas fireplaces, bay windows, Trayed ceilings, and fancy light fixtures.

However, as utility rates continue to rise and mortgage interest does too, these folks will have to pay a lot more attention to the *long term* cost of a home.

Jay

I wonder if one could cover the Prius in solar cells to get a little extra power out like this car :


The University of Queensland's Sustainable Energy Research Lab (SERL) is displaying its two-seater solar electric hybrid prototype the UltraCommuter as part of the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland's centenary events.

Spawned by SERL's work on the SunShark solar vehicle in 2000, the UltraCommuter is an ultra-light weight, low drag, hybrid-electric commuter vehicle that combines photovoltaic recharging and grid recharging with a CNG-fueled range-extending generator.

Two-and-a-half square metres of solar panels provide 375 Watts of electric power, meeting 87% of the car's total power needs and cutting greenhouse emissions by 97 percent compared to a conventional sedan (Australia's Holden Commodore).

In sunny weather the UltraCommuter can travel up to 60 km (37.3 miles) a day on solar power alone. Drawing on power stored in its 360V Li-Ion battery pack extends this to 200 km. For longer journeys compressed natural gas (CNG) powers a 10 kW generator to feed electricity into the batteries, producing a total range of 500 km (310 miles).

The car is propelled by two 75 kW motors producing 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) torque each that sit inside the rear wheels. These motors also act as brakes and perform regenerative braking to recharge the batteries to extend the UltraCommuter's range.

With its combined high peak torque of 1,000 Nm, the drivetrain can accelerate the vehicle from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in less than 8 seconds.



http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~serl/UltraCommuter.html
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/04/so..._electric_.html

This was discussed here a while ago: http://www.priusonline.com/viewtopic.php?t...der=asc&start=0

There is enough easily panelled area on the Prius to provide a daily average of about 4.5kWh of electrical power to (slowly) charge batteries.

This is equivalent to about 18 miles range per day, or about 6,500 miles per year - sufficient to cut the gas usage of most Prius owners by more than half. BUT better batteries would be required to make this happen. For example, the EnergyCS Prius would be ideally suited for this purpose, and would only require about $3,000 worth of Sunpower A300 cells to achieve it.

By the way, for those still dubious that real-world solar powered vehicles are practical and/or even possible, check out this guy's excellent solar-van: http://www.solarvan.co.uk/

Even in the dimly lit Northern regions of our country, with brick-like aerodynamics and bargain-basement low-efficiency solar cells (only 200 watts max!) he gets about 7 miles per day of his commute from solar power.

Total cost of solar panels - £1,000.
Total cost of solar powered vehicle - £9,000.

Could therefore become a reasonably priced factory-fit option on the forthcoming plug-in hybrid Prius, should Toyota have the foresight to sign a liscensing agreement with Sunpower in the meantime.

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I guess every little bit helps increase the mileage. It would help if they could develop PV that get 50% or better efficiency, maybe one day...