There was one guy on here a while back, forget his name. He was adamant about getting "off the grid" I would love to be able to go solar but it is a huge investment to say the least
It is expensive here in Australia too. I had a neighbough who put in solar becvause it would have cost him $14,000 to extend the powerlines just over the road...
I don't get it. If solar power has been around for a while now how come the technology hasn't dropped in price or gone up in energy conversion? Everything else with technology has so why hasn't solar power gone cheap?
Doesn't seem like the materials being used to build these are being dropped.. I guess it would if EVERYONE was interested in it (there more mass production = lower price). But people are afraid of the high prices right now... seems to be one bad vicious cycle..
exactly. Solar panels aren't like semi-conductor chips...you can't shrink them by 1/2 and expect 2X the output. that would be like saying - why hasn't the efficiency of the gasoline engine increased by 999% since it would first introduced...it's been around a long time!
lol. I mean seriously, in large crowded cities like Hong Kong who don't even have rooms for backyards.. doesn't sound possible
no, not by a long shot in cities like that. We have a 1 story house, lots of roof area but even if we covered 80-90% of the roof we'd only be able to accommodate maybe 60-70% of our electrical needs....unless of course we bought all new more efficient appliances, 1st and foremost a new A/C unit
Oh yeah.... I guess they can work in farms.. but then we'd still need more for mass production! Maybe they'll be able to make smaller ones in the future (look at the ipod nano.. and compare that to the oldschool CD players! Small, yes?)
It should be interesting to see how this new factory opening up soon impacts things. They'll be working with a different technology making printable solar cells that aren't using silicon chips.