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October 25, 2007

Comments

Fred

The answer is "everybody is doing it" so there must be something good in it :)
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct07/5568
When Google and WalMart are doing it due to goverment subsidy and corporate image, there is a economical benefit to the concept:) Espcially all of the evironment impact on the Solar panel production is done in the third world countries, the dollars generated by solar is very "clean".
The economics of solar panel is poor for city like Taipei. But it could be beneficial for the Southern cities with more sunlight and space. 120kW per county is a very small investment. As you said the propaganda does not work unless there is a real economical benefit.

One Nuclear power plant can generate all of the power produced by the entire solar panel in the world for a year. The heavy metal used in the panel and battery are not exactly environmental friendly either. But just like Nuclear industry in the 50s and 60s, as long as the goverment is behind it, it would take off. The difference is that this time, the general population can participate in it since the initial investment is like 20k-30k instead of 3 billion US dollars. So it fits the PC generation very well.

tzechien-chu

People are doing does not mean it is good. Even Google or Walmart. I need numbers....

Fred

True. Corporation (other than dot coms) in the US requires to justify every penny they spent. If the number does not work, they would not do it. You should look into the California and New Jersey example for the amount of the goverment subsidies. Germany on the other hand is "poor" in sunshine but rich in goverment incentive. It is money making business in Germany if convert unused farm land into revenue producing solar farm. Here is an article that you can dig deeper :
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/207415
Alternative energy -- energy that does not come from CO2 producing fossile fuel is very hot these days. Solar is only a small part of it. Nuclear rivival is another wave on the horizon. Here we are talking about several Giga Watts. Wind, In-River Hydro, Ocean Flow, JetStream, Geothermal.. you name it.. With 100 dollar/barrel oil in the forcast, many "inefficient" solutions will get their days.

tzechien-chu

OptiSolar hopes the premium offered through the Ontario program will give it a return on its investment over the life of its 20-year contract with the province, said Carrie.
HOPE,In 20 Years. Return.
I agree that we need to test the feasibility of Solar Power. So goverment subsidy is very important. But because it is a test the test result is more important.

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