[ale] Intelligent Power (was global warming) [OT]

[George Allen]

That's sortof what I was thinking - out by Big Bend or areas where there is 
lots of sunshine - maybe there could be an economy of scale. Even if it put 
half of the western desert in the shade.

Probably a good place for it would be all that land that's still a bit 
radioactive anyway. Seems like a good place for an army of robots to build a 
solar away instead of people.

And even if the technology isn't available now for the solar panels.... we 
don't have the linux powered solar-grid-maintence robotic-army-ants yet 
either... but both seem feasable in ... 10-20-50 years?

Seems closer to possible than those dubious nano-tech robots that were a hot 
dystopian sci-fi topic for a while.

-G

On Monday 03 March 2008 12:08:35 JK wrote:
> Jim Lynch wrote:
> > That's not what I've read.  Today's voltaic solar panels are running
> > about $3 - $4.50 per watt.  To compete with more conventional power
> > generation methods that number has to come down to $1 per watt.  That's
> > about what it costs for a fossil fueled plant.  There are people that
> > say some recent developments may get us there.  Besides when oil hits
> > $400 a barrel, the conventional power generation methods will cost more
> > than $1 per watt.  There are other solar power methods that show great
> > promise and are actually being implemented.  Unfortunately due to
> > economy of scale, they aren't economical for a single family dwelling to
> > install.
>
> Another (anectodal) data point: here in West TX, we get sunshine
> approximately 364.9999 days a year, and there are quite a few
> homes with solar arrays on the roof.  A grid-inter-tied 2KW array
> backed by a battery bank runs about $12K, which is a lot.  However,
> it has a very positive impact on home value, because the utility is
> required to purchase your excess power, and you often end up with a
> $0 or negative electricity bill.  Grid power costs about $.09/KWh
> here, which seems kind of steep to me; my electricity bills run into
> the $150..$200 range in summer.  If I were planning to keep my house,
> I'd seriously consider making the investment in solar.
>
> Of course, in a less-sunny location, the economics would be
> quite different.
>
> -- JK