I say solar power is the future, What do you say?
Image by CERTs
On Thursday, May 3rd, 2012, 46 people from the Mahtomedi Area came together to learn how they can add a solar system to their own home.
Question by jaan: I say solar power is the future, What do you say?
I always like solar power, calculators, toys and it’s always been cheaper and never run out. Batteries never last and solar power tops that hands down.
Feel free to answer in the comment section below
8 Responses to I say solar power is the future, What do you say?
Leave a Reply
It sounds swell 🙂 i’ve never used solar powered stuff, but it sounds cool
Cem
March 6, 2013 at 10:08 am
Yes solar is the future. Have you seen the nano-solar film panels?
daddeo01905
March 6, 2013 at 10:13 am
i think using a varioty of ways, mainly tidal power. tidal power as it is the only predictable and constant form of green energy. but looking into using carbon neutrol materials such as wood in wood burning stoves to heat our houses and water would be the best way to save the enviroment. i know it is taking a step back.. but it would help us.. we just need to get CHINA and INDIA and AFRICA to think the same way, then we will be fine 🙂
toby
March 6, 2013 at 10:42 am
Solar still has a long way to go. Current efficiencies only go to around 15%, and the standard silicon-based cell has a maximum efficiency of only 33%, due the bandgap of silicon and the type of light it can absorb. It is also very expensive, hence the hesitance towards deployment. Increasing efficiencies using exotic materials like gallium arsenide or other semiconducting materials is very expensive, while other cheaper methods, like plastic solar cells, only have efficiencies of around 4%. Incorporating all kinds energy sources will be important in the future, like wind, geothermal, nuclear, and tidal, so you can’t really say we will only be using this in the future.
Jose Hernandez
March 6, 2013 at 10:57 am
Solar power is our future and our past, where do you think the oil comes from, dead plants that grew in the sun light, the trees we burn for heat are grown from sun light, nothing new just some are renewable and some are padding the pockets of the rich. Until the rich find out how to charge us for solar power we will be dependent on fossil fuels. We have used passive solar power for years, clothes lines free dryer, in years ago people put black 50 gallon drums on their roofs to heat the water by sun light, townships outlawed them thought dirty politicians. The wave power source is an excellent idea, tidal power, many great ideas and we don’t have to send our young people to war to defend our wave power.
Ronald S
March 6, 2013 at 11:13 am
Hey Jaan, consider this: Solar actually might be the best environmental way to produce electricity, but the way we harness it is quite inefficient. Solar electric, or, “photovoltiac,” panels only convert about 12% of the incoming sun into electricity, the rest just heats up the panel. Arguments that they offset agricultural production are baseless since most of these devices are on the roof tops of homes and businesses, or in the desert. Our home has been powered by the wind and sun for 11 years now, my panels sit on the garage roof, I don’t grow tomatoes up there, and they run the entire home. Solar electric panels are still very useful, but the real answer is actually in the desert.
The Germans are working on a project right now to use the sun and heat in the desert to make electricity which will be more like 60% efficient. How it works is they use large concentrators to focus the hot sun on collectors that heat oil to several hundred degrees. The oil is circulated into a huge insulated tank, then an oil to water heat exchanger is used to take sea water, boil it into steam and run a steam turbine. The turbine turns a generator and makes electricity. As a by product, the recondensed steam becomes fresh water, the salt is naturally extracted in the boiling process and seperated out, and the fresh water is then used to irrigate crops that will grow alongside the solar concentrators. So we can take a patch of desert, devoid of life, make electricity and grow food all at the same time with just the power of the sun. They will produce enough power to run all of Europe with just the northwest corner of the Sahara. No wildlife will be displaced, but the crops, partial shade and water will attract new wildlife to the area. Another benefit of this system is with all the oil heated and stored in an insulated tank, it can continue to boil water even when passing clouds shade the concentrators, or well into the night. So now we have access to solar power at night too. And the oil is continually recirculated, none of it gets burned or used up. Once it’s operating, it can continue to produce electricity and fresh water for decades without any emissions. It is very promising, and if it works as well there as they hope, I’m sure in another 10 years you’ll see them on all continents, including ours.
Stick with solar, we did 11 years ago, and our array puts out the same amount of power today as it did then. I’ve never turned a screw on my solar array or had to add a drop of oil, and our home has not been without power for even a minute in all those years. Hard to put a price on that. In your research you will undoubtedly hear the argument that, “Solar panels never produce as much power as was used to produce them.” This is blatently false, tons of research has been done to prove that the, “Embodied Energy,” in a solar panel is earned back in just a few years. But even if it weren’t, it wouldn’t matter. Coal, oil and natural gas electric plants never earn back their embodied energy because no matter how efficient they might be, once you build one, it then has to be fed more fuel to make electricity, so it never does get even environmentally. It always amazes me how we’ve been burning coal and oil for years, but as soon as someone comes up with something as clever as a photovoltiac panel, the world is always trying to discredit it.
You can see articles and pictures of the project by clicking on the links below, or try venturing out on your own by googling phrases like, “Desertec Project,” or, “Northwest Sahara Solar Project.” You will probably find some great photos to look at too. Take care Jaan, Rudydoo
Rudydoo
March 6, 2013 at 11:55 am
We’ll have to have a combination of power sources. I’d personally like to have more nuclear power plants.
MB
March 6, 2013 at 12:05 pm
I totally agree. Some day everyone will have solar panels on their houses.
frito219
March 6, 2013 at 12:25 pm