Good News ~ Solar Power Boom Officially Begins!
Over the months, you, envirowarrior readers, have so often commented about the need for alternative, renewable fuel sources ~ like SOLAR POWER.
Why the delay, why the hold-up, why won’t the government ‘get into it?’
In a nutshell?
They’ve been waiting for ‘price parity’ with fossil fuels. What that means (apart from the fact that the stock market stays afloat), is that governments around the world have been waiting until dwindling supplies of Cheap Oil, is slowly putting the cost of solar power, on an equal footing with fossil-generated energy.
It looks like the age of solar power has arrived.
Sadly, subsidies are still needed because initial solar set-up costs, still make it more expensive than conventional power sources like coal, especially for low income households. However, costs of solar panels are dropping around the world by around 5% a year and 'grid parity,’ is already a reality in parts of California in the US, where the cost of supplying either form of energy, is equal.
It is estimated that very sunny countries, ‘… could reach ‘breakeven point’ in five years or so, and even cloudy Britain, by 2020.’
Of course the crux of the problem, is that you need oil to produce solar panels, weighing heavily on how fast the industry can cut costs against how fast energy prices rise. The good news for environmentalists and ‘idealists’ ~ who continue to believe that solar power is the answer to accelerated climate change and pollution, as well as continuing energy dependancy ~ is that traditional European energy prices neared all-time highs this week, driven by record oil prices.
Solar Shingles
Meanwhile, leading the charge with Japan, German solar power company Q-Cells AG, the world's second biggest maker of solar cells, expects to be able to make substantial cost cuts by making more components thinner than before, and by using cheaper techniques for processing the silicon raw material.
Overall, the solar sector has grown at 40% per year over the past decade, despite a shortage of silicon, but corporate executives say ..’that bottleneck should ease over the next two to three years, as priorities become self evident.’
In some parts of Australia, you can even sell surplus energy you have collected, back to the energy grid of your local Energy supplier ~ through green initiatives ~ call your local energy company and find out if you are eligible?
Like all things, it will take individual involvement to make it successful and we can keep our beautiful country pristine ~ even perhaps unclog some of the cities a little too?
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This post has been a joy to research and write... I can barely sit still for the excitement and portent it entails. Not to mention vindication for having been labelled an impractical idealist by family members for the longest of times...*chuckle* who's laughing now?
I am really chuffed with this news myself, and despite teething problems, know it is really a great step forward for mankind too, I agree.
Lilla ...
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... you bet, I'd take that little tudor number in a flash ... I bet it's got all the mod cons inside too!
Australia - for all its open opportunity - has produced such drab, ugly, unsuitable housing, in it's umbilicus attempt to conform, that it makes me want to gag.
I'm not going to even go near the fact that the houses just don't suit the climate ... at least now with solar panels on the rooves they'll be practical ... although, finally now, architects are looking at eco friendly bush alternative shapes like the house pictured here ... we are waking up it seems and realising that we don't have to conform to little boxes in a row like they did in Sheffield, England.... about time, I say.
I am excited by this news...
Lilla ...
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It always astounds me when these things take so long to happen!
Thanks also for the diagram - I wasn't actually completely sure how it worked.
Wonderful post!
Michaelie
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Thank-you, it is my absolute pleasure, especially on this one!
It is such good news and I can see a brighter, cleaner, future already... for all our children and their children... that has made today a good day for me.
Hope your's stays special too sweetie,
Lilla ...
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Great post thank you.....
Have you looked into Solar Thermal Technology, that is the most exciting of all, can generate loads on par with nuclear, only problem for OZ is it needs water but i read the other day it might just need fluid so sea water might do which would make it INCREDIBLE, the guy who invested in SUN Systems and made a few Bill way back when is pushing it.
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Thanks, no Idon't know too much about it, but will look it up and perhaps research a post on it?
Cheers and good luck with arkX
Lilla ...
It is so nice to see such innocent wide eyed wonder.
Just remember not to hold your breath.
The solar industry in OZ is at a stand still. Has been for years.
The industry is mostly people who do not use or live with solar power telling others how to do it.
The current government put a 10% tax on solar with the GST
(Grab Steal and Take tax) .
The industry spent thousands to write a competency standard for installers, which is totally ignored in the reaccreditation of installers.
In fact you get more points towards reaccreditation for attending a conference than you do for being able to design and install a system.
Larry
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I like your scepticism, they say it is healthy... and I agree. However, I hardly think myself naïve, because oil and coal will run out, fresh water too and the population will continue to grow ... and whilst I agree that nuclear power is already a given, regardless of the party mis-governing Australia, I do believe that solar power will eventually claim half (if not more) of the world’s energy market.
My ‘wild-eyed wonder’ is based from a future perspective, not now, not our lifetime. Now is not important, because it is already ruined by greed, and there will be enough to make do still, before you and I die.
You already know that necessity is the mother of invention?
From your comment, you also know that Australia is notoriously behind in everything progressive where the rest of the world is concerned, but miles ahead in short sightedness, when it comes to living in debt and selling of and mis-managing our resources?
Thanks for commenting, it will be interesting to see where a younger, greener government will take this, if they get the chance to fulfil their promises?
Lilla ...
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Yes, I thought they might inspire you *chuckle* they turn me on too...and probably my household as well
Good to see you, hope you're enjoying your jog.
Lilla ...
Well there is no scepticism involved, only observable fact.
Twenty years of living with solar power leaves no room for scepticism.
Some fifteen of those years I designed and installed solar power for a living.
A new government? Don't hold your breath.
If people want it to happen they will have to drive the change through action.
Not waiting for the price to be right.
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I had a feeling I was preaching to the converted as I typed the response. Bravo ... I can see where you are coming from and know you speak much truth through fact.
To predict the future, we must study the past, right?
But I still say, that things will have to change because of dwindling supply and more demand ... you may well find yourself coming into your own, within your lifetime, yet?
I can dream too, and wouldn't that be nice for all of us?
Showing people the dream, is often, the very thing that enables it to be acted upon, wouldn't you say?
Still hoping for the best...
Lilla ...
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ABOUT TIME! YAAAAYYYYY!!!
I remember seeing solar panels on mud huts in Africa just before I left - WONDERFUL sight!
I heard the other day that they are thinking of putting a tax on water that is collected in rainwater tanks? I hope it doesn`t come about and if solar power is used I hope that doesn`t come about either.
I know they have to get some revenue from somewhere to keep things running... but surely the more we do to get self-sufficient the more obsolete these huge belching, environmentally wrecking places will be become? Not sure just glad that we are makinga move in the right direction for a change
Not a huge thing but I know we used to put all our old batteries out in the sun for a while and they would get a little more life in them - not vast amounts but enough to delay buying more for a while... all those little whiles add up to less batteries being bought in the long run.
Ash
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Nevertheless, great article. ^_^
Have a blessed day
Jessicca
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You didn’t happen to take a pic of that did you? It’d be marvellous to see… and it raises perhaps the most pertinent point of all where alternative energy is concerned, because in the poorer countries, where the people are closer to the land, they are right on it!
It is here in the west in the pampered boudoirs of our celebrity lifestyles, that I notice that people around my neighbourhood continually seem to lack the ability to care enough to make a single change in their daily routines of consumption. This is all usually done through some bullshit justification for not bothering too, which makes me want to gag! … Never sparing a thought for dwindling supplies, because they are …um… too busy making their next million?
I know, I shouldn’t be so hard on my species, but it infuriates me...it's not like it was when we lived out in the country, for sure... unfortunately I have no choice but to be here at this point in time, and in a way I'm glad I have come to see how the 21st century suburbian mentally functions (or doesn't)....
However, this story/research picked me up Ash, because if things like solar becomes trendy, which it is… it seems that those with wealthy celebrity lifestyles ARE beginning to herald the changes that the middle and lower classes will eventually mimic… that is good news for us all because just one change per household adds to 6 billion litres of water, 6 billion tonnes of coal, 6 billion drums of oil… saved, unused and NOT MISSED!
As for the sun?
Well as far as I can ascertain (and my research is certainly not definitive)… we have about 90,000 years left before is implodes. Before that, apparently, it will expand to the point of cooking us all here on earth, but by then we will have headed of and colonised Mars (again?) anyway.*chuckle* humans are not to be gainsaid that easily. . . hope I get to fly the shuttle in a future lifetime, although I'm not sure what we'll have cooked up by then to photosynthesis daylight and plant growth?
*getting back on topic* sorry, it was a great drum last night
As for batteries to store all this solar wonder… I guess that will improve too, but if oil prices continue to rise, it stands to reason that the cost of making batteries will too?
However, having said that, changing the way we make batteries could well be a part of the solution too. I can remember my first cell phone batteries; they were really inadequate at holding power and took all night to charge. They were finicky too, because if they weren’t completely drained before I charged them, then they’d just stop working …
My new cell phone – which is now two years old – has brilliant batteries. They charge in 30 minutes and last for days – weeks even and they have a longer life overall.
I guess it could be the same with solar storage batteries too, it just depends on who is set to get the financial benefits from it, I guess?
For now though, we will all still need to find a dry place to store our solar batteries ...and they do take up space. Wouldn’t it be good if you could have one shaped like a door. Even hang them and use them as panels in our doors. Slimline batteries that fit into the décor… but I guess that’s yet to come…
Hugglies
Lilla …
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You sound like me on one of my doom and gloom days *chuckle*… but I’m not laughing at your comment, because you are absolutely right...
I remember reading somewhere recently, that if all the clean green technology were released and implemented (and even to some degree using cleaner nuclear - instread of coal - power plants).. the pollution haze currently dogging the planet, could well be turned around within 10 years, to pristine conditions… that is of course, if we leave a third of the planet covered in trees?
That is the problem because so many people in third world countries head to the woods to clear for farming, to carve a living out of the new 'crops for ethanol' industry, designed to keep the affluent SUV’s on the road - oh it makes me gag!
At this stage it’s anyone’s guess, except that I am thrilled to notice that wherever I go, people are starting to accept that although what's happening IS a part of a long term natural warming trend cycle (caused by an expanding sun); the current rate of global warming, is being accelerated by our activities on the planet to the point of destructiveness for our own species. I truly believe that even politicians will come to realise that we have to take responsibility for the activities, or do away with governments. History has proven that eventually the people will fight for survival and overcome the oppressors who threaten that survival.
We live in interesting times, do we not, Jessica?
I hope all is well with you and would love some pics and updates of the pollution haze there, where you are. (..what are they doing locally?) …perhaps on your Visit Malaysia site?
Hope your day is special.
Lilla …
PS I really enjoyed the save the Mameng series ... and congratulations on the first Malaysian in space!
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I am trying to do all I can to promote solar power in my neck of the woods. Thanks so much for the hopeful post!
Mis
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God speed and power to you, there ~ and thanks for the encouragement here too ...this was a pleasure to write.
Lotsa love
Lilla ...
Here is a question that you may find interesting.
Why does a 5 Star energy rated house require air-conditioning?
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...you got me. Why does a 5-star energy rated house require air-conditioning?
Brand new 5 star home is built then sold and within a short time a bloody great air-conditioner sprouts on the roof like some mal formed mushroom.
Why? If a house is built to correctly, why should it get hot enough inside to need cooling from an air-conditioner.
The formula for determining energy ratings is flawed. The house I built would be lucky to get one star but does not require AC and only a small amount of wood to heat it.
Anyway I thought you might find the question worth examining in your blog.
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I like the way you think.
Unless, like so many other things these days, it's simply a case of prestige. 'Because we can' Keeping up with the Jonse's? Who knows...
I will look into it and see what I can come up with,thanks for the thread.
Lilla ...
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It is wonderful to hear from your part of the world... and with such good news!
Here in Australia, things are not so speedy in reality ... although a meagre subsidy exists, very few people really understand it, less have it. We are not yet encouraged by the government through active advertising at all, and if surveyed, most Australians would probably respond with the fact that they still believed it beyond their reach financially.
I can't even tell you that one-in-ten have solar here and yet like you there, we have an abundance of sunshine, to spare.
It is criminal, when so much money is spent on war these days.
I would love to know more from your locale, and hope you visit again with news...
Thank you for visiting today.
Lilla ...
I was just wondering, do the benefits outweigh the environmental costs of acutally making the panel (e.g. oil)?
And can we sell unused electricity back to the grid?
hmm. it would be good if we could. not only would the people who have solar panels benefit, but other people who don't but would still like to do their bit for the environment.
Thankyou so much. I would really appreciate any help here. I'm not actually speaking in this debate but I'm quite interested in the topic.
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The other probem that still exists everywhere - but one I am sure that scientists are always working on to improve - is the ability to store the energy, efficiently and in a compact (pleasing) way.
Down where I was, it took a bank ofrows and rows of ugly 12-volt car batteries under the house to store enough power to run all of the appliances in the house - and lights; hot water and computers for a 12-18 hours period. I guess we have grown accustomed to not just conserving energy by reading at nighttime... or better still just going to bed...
The other problem is indeed exactly as you say, who manufactures the panels when the oil runs out completely ... is it just another band-aid style, non-renewable short-term stop gap measure... that is such a good point and you may like to look at my latest post where it seems that whilst solar power can add domestic energy; wind power may be answering the big picture in a better way.
In Australia at the moment there are schemes to sell extra energy back to the power companies, but not all of them do it and some don't pay much - or not at all - preferring only to take the extra off your normal bills. It is still very much up to you - good research - and the art of negotiation. I would certainly suggest that you read any or all of the fine print on such a contract before agreeing to it... maybe you can phone some energy companies in your area and ask them what is involved. It varies so much.
I wish you good luck with your presentation and perhaps if you have time, you can let me know how it went?
Good Luck,
Lilla ...