Quote:
Originally Posted by casstony
That solar power will provide the bulk of our enegy needs at some point in the future seems obvious to me - the energy is already delivered to us, we just need to collect it.
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That is true..
But try the simple calculation, based on actual availability:
Solar constant is 1.4kW/m2, in space (above atmosphere).
Current commercial grade solar panel efficiency is 20%.
To generate enough power for domestic use this may be sufficient (and you don't have to cover the whole roof with solar panels) .. but the price is detrimental for wider use, even with government grant, which will stop one day - next financial year it will be decreased by 20%. (I am actually having it installed right now, $2.5k (after grant) for 1.5kW system is still sort of OK but $5k (next year) is definitely not).
For industrial use, solar power is completely different animal - and I doubt it will be viable very soon - you have to have it night and day, 24/7, reliably, and a lot of it (which means a huge areas covered with solar panels (useless for anything else) and huge batteries to store the energy for night or rainy days).
That is the very reason we have coal and nuclear and hydro power plants - the continuity of supply is a paramount.
ONLY when solar panels become cheaper than what we have now, they will be widely used (but I doubt they will ever replace conventional ways completely).
For now, they are just , well, curiosity for most (I know that I just opened the Pandora's box).