"Goedjn" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:47:55 -0800, "Bob F"
wrote:


wrote in message
You mean no problems other than solar is not even close to economically
feasible? If it were that simple, you think utilities would still be
using nukes, oil, gas and coal instead?

There is a lot of research around the world on developing
better, cheaper solar cells. Part of the motivation for this
research is the demand. Increasing the demand helps. It
is in our best interest to move this process along.

More efficient cells, cheaper cells, flexible cells, organic
cells, etc. It is all being developed.


Although it's likely to remain the case for quite some
time that you're better off using solar energy without
converting it to electricity first, whenever you can
manage it.

Amen to the last observation there- electricity is a very luxurious form of
energy, convenient to move and easy to use. But there are work-arounds for a
lot of things a house uses energy for. Trivial example- use a
passive-solar-heated tank as a preheater for the water heater. Takes a lot
less juice to raise water from lukewarm to hot, than it does wellhead temp,
to hot. Same water tank can also be a heat mass in the sunroom on the sunny
side of the house, that you use a small fan to route warm air to the inside
in winter, or set up a convection current in summer to suck cool air through
the house at night. Yeah, its a PITA running around messing with valves and
windowshades, but the energy is free once you amortize the hardware.

aem sends...