On Solar Energy Sources

ticklykayak said:
I read about Solar Power Storage and I think it's really good to be environmentally friendly. I'm going to have solar panels installed even if I may not be able to recoup my losses in the near future.
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I like being environmentally friendly, too.
I always try to offer trees some fresh urine to quench their thirst. If you presume solar panels to be environmentally friendly, you are perhaps overlooking a few things.

To make solar cells, the raw materials—silicon dioxide of either quartzite gravel or crushed quartz—are first placed into an electric arc furnace, where a carbon arc is applied to release the oxygen. The products are carbon dioxide and molten silicon. At this point, the silicon is still not pure enough to be used for solar cells and requires further purification.
Pure silicon is derived from such silicon dioxides as quartzite gravel (the purest silica) or crushed quartz. The resulting pure silicon is then doped (treated with) with phosphorous and boron to produce an excess of electrons and a deficiency of electrons respectively to make a semiconductor capable of conducting electricity. The silicon disks are shiny and require an anti-reflective coating, usually titanium dioxide.

Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Solar-Cell.html#ixzz3Q2rMsuPp

There's a lot going on before those cells get made which causes plenty of ecological change in ways society would otherwise consider damaging.
To call them "friendly" is a misnomer.

Health Risks, too? (What doesn't have health risks, though) :lol:

http://www.solarindustrymag.com/iss...d_In_Silicon_PV_Cell_Production_A_Primer.html

Too often we only see the harvest and not the weeks of messy toil which go into creating that work of Mart.
If your only reason for adopting solar is because you think it is "environmentally friendly", then I have some other "friendly" things to sell you, too. I have an old 1st-gen nuclear reactor to offer, half off the list price. You can power your town with it, and play Homer Simpson on the weekends. It is very "friendly" and good around children...
 
Scarce26 said:
I still have my son's education to prioritize so maybe after three years I can start preparing and find budget to get me those solar panels.
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By then, things will have changed, too. What's available now should be cheaper, and there will probably be better technology available. Did you know Kauai Island will be getting up to 80% of its power from solar at peak?
But it has another problem; where to store it all so it can be used later.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534266/hawaiis-solar-push-strains-the-grid/
 
There are several do it Yourself Video's on building Your own Panel's. Schrader Valves,Inert Gases and soldering are easy to understand ....Building the cases takes some tooling and skill...
 
heckler73 said:
By then, things will have changed, too. What's available now should be cheaper, and there will probably be better technology available.
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That is very true but I have no choice. It is something lined up for us to get after my son's education aside from getting a new car :rolleyes:
 
heckler73 said:
By then, things will have changed, too. What's available now should be cheaper, and there will probably be better technology available. Did you know Kauai Island will be getting up to 80% of its power from solar at peak?
But it has another problem; where to store it all so it can be used later.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534266/hawaiis-solar-push-strains-the-grid/
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The island might consider using water; pump it up to a lake at some altitude, then drain it to create hydroelectric power when the solar panels aren't producing. The water can be reused indefinitely and the cost to the environment is relatively low.
 
Solar can be an excellent adjunct to a complete energy generation system, and I question the assumption that it needs to be off grid to be useful.

Run the solar panels and sell excess energy to the utility all day and then buy it back overnight.

Or, buy a natural gas powered cogeneration plant that features an integrated heat pump; the heat warms your home, the natural gas turns a generator for electricity which then powers your home.

OR, buy a fuel cell and it does the same thing with higher efficiency. Even then, solar could help during the day.

If you're concerned about battery storage, consider an electric car; they are glorified rolling batteries, after all! Once the battery is full, driving is much cheaper than gasoline and if your home grid needs extra juice overnight it could pull it from the car.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER;
EVERY ONE of the solutions outlined above are in use today and not stuck in the realm of theoretical or pipe dream tech.
 
ttystikk said:
If you're concerned about battery storage, consider an electric car; they are glorified rolling batteries, after all! Once the battery is full, driving is much cheaper than gasoline and if your home grid needs extra juice overnight it could pull it from the car.
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Thanks. We are actually gearing towards that.
 
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