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To: qam1

"Capacity is a weasel word used to prop up their numbers, capacity means yeah sure it will produce 430 megawatts if the earth stops rotating and the sun stays overhead 24-7-365"

They're not talking about a single unit producing 430 megawatts. They're talking about the total of a lot of smaller units doing it. Think about it.


51 posted on 06/24/2006 12:34:22 PM PDT by MineralMan (non-evangelical atheist)
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To: MineralMan
I'm an (almost) electrical engineer, I took a photovoltaics course last summer with the professor who literally wrote the book on photovoltaics.

I just looked at a few of the "whole system" designs I had done. If the panels I used in my designs had been FREE, the overall cost of the system would have only dropped by less than %10. The costs of a PV system in order are: batteries, inverters, charge controllers, solar panels, cabling, and hardware.

I've given PV systems a lot of thought over the years and IMHO the only way to go would be inexpensive solar roofing shingles tied directly into the grid (no batteries). If every building had this set-up we could probably cut our domestic non-solar electricity generation by %20-30. Peak energy usage is always during the daylight hours, lucky for us that's also when the sun's out :) .
75 posted on 06/24/2006 1:18:20 PM PDT by IYAAYAS (Live free or die trying)
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