"Shedding light on solar power "

[GreenPartyVoter]

More and more Mainers are using the sun to generate their own power.

Amid growing concerns over the price, availability and impact of fossil fuels, Maine homeowners are searching for alternative energy sources, and many who have brought sun power into their homes argue that sustainable energy sources such as solar power can power a typical modern house without affecting individual life styles.

About 500 "green home" owners opened their doors to the public recently during the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's annual Green Building Open House, an annual event designed to "demystify" buildings that use alternative and sustainable energy sources.

Within the past few years, both Rufus Wanning and Margaret DeRivera of Orland and Frank John of Brooklin chose to convert their homes in order to use the sun's power to generate electricity. Both decided on a photovoltaic system using an array of solar panels that produce the power they need to run their homes and allow them to remain connected to their regional power supplier.

http://bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=122499

[Old and In the Way]

1. Hi GPV.......you had a link to a Solar House down in Falmouth, I think,

a few weeks ago. Do you still have it? I have a friend up in Canada who is deep into battery storage technology and he's interested in reading this.

Thanks.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Sure thing. It's solarhouse.com

:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Thank you very much for posting this.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Any time *s* I wish to God I could say I had a solar house of my own, but

it's not in the cards yet.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I am trying to convince my landlady to go solar.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Thanks GPV.

I built my log home in 1998...it's on high elevation and perfectly positioned for Solar.

Unfortunately, I forced into building...my old farmhouse burned flat to the ground, and I bearly had enough time and money to get the house up with conventional power before winter really set in.

Who knows, though, maybe someday we,ll do a retrofit. I'm convinced that we could have 75%+ of our residential power needs addressed if everyone could get on the solar grid.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Ayuh. I think we need to start planning our towns so that they supply most

of their own power.

I wish I had the $$ to be a developer. I would love to build little solar neighborhoods. :D

[MazeRat7]

6. One really bright product in development is "Solar Glass"

Actually there are two companies I am really behind. The first, XsunX ( http://www.xsunx.com ) that is working to produce transparent glass that generates electricity. The ramifications are huge for both commercial and residential users. Imagine being able to get electricity from your windows.

The second is DayStar Technologies that is building silicon-free flexible solar foil ( http://www.daystartech.com ) Besides being a "foil"...the important point is it is not silicon based which translates into lower production cost.


These are just two of several emerging companies that are producing technology that I can really get behind and support.

MZr7

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Whoa! This is cool stuff. I'd never heard of either before. Thanks for

cluing me in. :hug:

[slaveplanet]

16. I see your foil

but here's something better....


Breakthrough in solar photovoltaics



THE HOLY Grail of researchers in the field of solar photovoltaic (SPV) electricity is to generate it at a lower cost than that of grid electricity. The goal now seems to be within reach.

A Palo Alto (California ) start-up, named Nanosolar Inc., founded in 2002, claims that it has developed a commercial scale technology that can deliver solar electricity at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Molecular self-assembly


The breakthrough has come through the application of nanotechnology to create components via molecular self-assembly, including quantum dots (10nm large nanoparticles) as well as nanotemplates with structural order extending through all three dimensions.

In addition, Nanosolar has demonstrated that the three dimensionally engineered nanotemplates can be conformally coated or solidly filled with semiconductor paint to create ultra-thin solar cells with layers that are yet another factor 100x thinner than conventional thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells.

This allows a 10x larger surface area of these structures to be used to achieve a 10x increase in efficiency for such thin layers, thus making it possible to use even less material for similarly efficient cells. Conventional inorganic semiconductors tend to require intricate processing to ensure large grains of crystallinity (in the extreme case: mono-crystallinity) so that charges can travel hundreds of nanometres without getting trapped and lost (at internal crystal boundaries).

more...
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2005/02/03/stories/2005020300431600.htm

[MADem]

8. Great article--I just wonder why we can't get onboard with this technology

If we really put our shoulders to it, we could make it so affordable. It makes sense, but instead we burn coal, gas, oil, and go nuclear...I wish we as a nation would do more of this sort of thing, as well as wind power. The energy is out there, we just have to get more creative in harnessing it.

[NEOBuckeye]

9. A shame that America seems destined to get into Solar THE HARD WAY

It will probably take the impending 1-2 Punch of Peak Oil and Economic Collapse to force a more broad and penetrating understanding about alternative energy, as alternatives become our only choice.

The next 15 to 20 years are going to be very bumpy ones.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Which is why I am glad my dad and nana own their own homes and land

If we had to move in with someone and start up veggie gardens and greenhouses, we could do that. It really may come to that if things go as far downhill as to a new depression.

[Telly Savalas]

17. Ideally we'll have some leadership on this issue...

and get a head start on tackling this issue.

This issue is a winner for the Democrats, but it requires more than bitching about gas prices and other energy costs. We need a pro-active strategy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. I would love to see entire communities do this. Buy the panels in bulk and

share the burden of cost for installation.

[MADem]

18. I read, somewhere, about these lighter, thinner panels

that were almost like thick plastic sheeting. You could actually ROLL them and they were far more impervious to hail. My memory fails, I am not sure if they are in development, in use, or what, but they haven't taken off quite yet.

That is the big drawback right now, the ones in popular use can shatter in adverse weather and they are relatively delicate. And once they break, ya gotta replace. If we could just get to the point where accessing solar energy requires nothing more complex than staking something resembling a heavy tarp to one's roof, we could damn near save the world!

It bugs me, we have so many industrious people in this nation, with so many damn SMARTS, and our government will NOT GET BEHIND THIS with leadership, grants, loans, whatever it takes. And the reason they won't is all down to CRONYISM, personal profit and greed, and it just makes me....well, BULLSHIT!!

[MADem]

19. Dupe, sorry, my mouse is all aflutter

[the_spectator]

14. Some headline-writing Mainer is doing a damn good job!

Here's the event that makes this story "news" :

"About 500 "green home" owners opened their doors to the public recently during the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's annual Green Building Open House, an annual event designed to "demystify" buildings that use alternative and sustainable energy sources."

See, you average hack would just give us, "Raising Solar Power Awareness." or "Solar Users Raise Awareness." But this guy comes up with "Shedding Light on Solar Power." Nice!

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. We're known for our wit up around here. *g*