Solar Power Can Be Our Future

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/12/02/solar-power-can-be-our-future/

Once the photovoltaic panels are up on your roof, nothing more needs to be done. They harvest electricity from the sun even on cloudy days. Never in the half-dozen years have the 38 panels on our roof needed any care. And frequently, looking at the Long Island Power Authority meter attached to the house, I see the numbers going backwards—we’re producing electricity for LIPA for which LIPA reimburses us.

Then there are the two thermal solar panels heating up water and sending it—very well-heated—into the house. The other day, it was 64-degrees outside but the thermometer on the hot water tank in the basement showed water from the thermal panels coming down at 130-degrees. Amazing! And these panels are also care-free.

Meanwhile, the price of solar panels have plummeted since the panels were installed at our house—and efficiencies have gone up, Dean Hapshe of Harvest Power was saying the other day on a visit to check our installation.

Mr. Hapshe of Patchogue, New York is a master teacher of solar installers on Long Island. He entered the solar energy field in 1980 and with his decades of experience has served as an instructor of others in the industry. When he and his crew put our system in, the cost of the photovoltaic panels, which produce 7,500 watts—an average-size system—was $6 a watt. “Now it’s down to $3.65,” Mr. Hapshe was saying. The efficiency rate has risen to 21%—getting close to the 25% efficiency of solar panels on space systems such as satellites and the International Space Station. That means more electricity is generated for every ray of sunlight.

[DetlefK]

1. Problem: Home-owned solar power doesn't work with the current electric grids.

Currently, the electric grids and their whole balancing-system are geared towards centralized voltage-production: reactors. Top-down.

Decentralized voltage-production means that a home sometimes produces electricity and sometimes sucks in electricity. Here, the electric grid needs to be layed out like a network, not like a pyramid.




Home-owned solar/wind/water power cannot work on a significant scale without a modernization of the electric grid.