Derek Geldard wrote:
On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:37:32 +0000, judith wrote:

Wind turbines are a joke, so are solar panels.
The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as
thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium
film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what
British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.

Ooo-oooooooooooooh "British Scientists" call it "a revolution"

and there was I thinking it was a figment of the imagination of a
Bowldy-Headed hack in the Grauniad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...enewableenergy

That's good news then ...

Can I buy them online ? No

Can I buy them offline ? No

Can I buy them at all ? No

Can I see some samples No

Has anybody seen them working No

Does anybody know how long they'll last Not even Dynamo Hansen

Best have another look at that authoritative article then :

"Britain was unlikely to benefit from the technology for some years
because other countries paid better money for renewable electricity,
it added."

Looks like it's our fault, cheapskates that we are.

"Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in
Germany," said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar's manager in Switzerland.

California, Germany, Switzerland, Far away places with strange
sounding names, no wonder our money is not good enough for them.

"We aim to produce the panels for 99 cents [50p] a watt, which is
comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal."

How do you work that out ?


Precsiely. I suspect what he is saying is that in bright california
sunshine the PANEL COST is about $1 per watt generated.

The capital cost of a nuclear set, which DOES work in dull overcast
conditions, and at night, is around $2000 per KW. Or $2 per watt.

(its about 3-10 times that for a windmill)

Now of course its not in the costings as to how much tranmission line
and ancillary control stuff you need to manage around 3 million square
meters of solar panels..Thats 3 square kilometers..to generate the same
amount of electricity as a large power station.

The avearge insolatin of California is about three times what it is in
the UK.


In December/January - when wee need the MOST energy, the average
insolation is is less than 1Kwh/day/sq meter..

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file22019.pdf

Our total energy consumption is 160GW average. More in winter, Say
300GW. Say 12.6GWh per day.

At 100% efficiency, - probably ten times what is realistically
achievable by ANY technology - that means AT LEAST 300 square kilometers
of solar panes. Realistically at 10% efficiency thats 3000 square
kilometers, and thats daytime only power. So an area the size of the
lake district covered in solar panels. Right. And a hell of a lot of
overnight storage heaters or batteries.

Its greenmyth nonsense.

Sure it can help a little, but like all greenwash ********, it can't do
more than nibble at teh edges of the problem.









"We cannot disclose our exact figures yet as we are a private company
but we can bring it down to that level. That is the vision we are
aiming at."

Fools and their money are soon parted.

DG