Solar Panel Blah Blah Trivia That Actually Is Surprising

[MEXICOWANDERER]

China says each of three factories shall produce three gigawatts worth of panels every month. This is to me astonishing. Hundreds of thousands of employees. Not a dream it is happening. Also says Musk is thinking small with regard to battery production. Interesting...

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Solar power grew faster than any other source of fuel for the first time in 2016, the International Energy Agency said in a report suggesting the technology will dominate renewables in the years ahead.

The institution established after the first major oil crisis in 1973 said 165 gigawatts of renewables were completed last year, which was two-thirds of the net expansion in electricity supply. Solar powered by photovoltaics, or PVs, grew by 50 percent, with almost half of new plants built in China.

“What we are witnessing is the birth of a new era in solar PV,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in a statement accompanying the report published on Wednesday in Paris. “We expect that solar PV capacity growth will be higher than any other renewable technology through 2022.”

This marks the sixth consecutive year that clean energy has set records for installations. Mass manufacturing and a switch by governments away from fixed payments for renewables forced down the cost of wind and solar technology.

The IEA expects about 1,000 gigawatts of renewables will be installed in the next five years, a milestone that coal only accomplished after 80 years. That quantity of electricity surpasses what’s consumed in China, India and Germany combined.

The surge of photovoltaics in China is largely due to government support for renewables, which are being demanded by a population concerned about air pollution and environmental degradation that has led to deadly smogs. The country is seeking to reduce its reliance on coal and has become the world’s largest market for renewables, particularly solar.

“The solar PV story is a Chinese story,” said Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA’s renewable energy division. “China has been for a long time the leader in manufacturing. What’s new is the share in the market. This year, it was equivalent to the total installed capacity of PV in Germany.”

The U.S. and India are among other nations pushing renewables. They along with China are projected to make up two-thirds of the clean-energy expansion worldwide. Despite President Donald Trump’s vow to bolster coal’s position in the power market, the U.S. is expected to be the second-largest market for renewables.

Read How Solar Energy Was Transformed From Nutty to Normal:

The IEA also expects biofuels to take a larger role in the transportation industry, surpassing gains by electric vehicles.

“A lot of attention has been given in recent months to electric vehicles, and rightly so. They are increasingly globally, exponentially,” Frankl said. “But I have to say, we should not forget the biofuels, which at the end of 2016 represented 96 percent of total renewable transport.”

[2oldman]

maillemaker wrote:
It's such a shame that we let other countries take the lead on solar power. Those could have been our jobs and our intellectual property rights.

The current political climate isn't helping.

[TBammer]

clarkster wrote:
I think a modern nuclear plant can fill the power needs into the future.

Once some brilliant scientist can mitigate the waste into a pile of garden fertilizer.

Look at Thorium powered LFTR molten salt reactor technology. Eric Sorensen researched it for NASA and found old research that was ditched because this type of reactor is not good for making bombs out of the waste (No plutonium, no long half life byproducts)

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Whadd'ya mean?

We are FIRST in blood-drenched video games, tax-dollar-subsidized raising food for parts damaging fuel, Alice In Wonderland Government, Hippies, Recreational Drug Consumption, Production of cash registers with symbols instead of numbers, tax subsidized colleges with hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese students, Professors that would have given Sigmund Freud seventeen lifetimes worth of work, Useless arms production, Hollyweird, Pornography, and countless other state of the art milestones. Oh, I forgot to mention military arms that cost billions and are unproven.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

maillemaker wrote:
It's such a shame that we let other countries take the lead on solar power. Those could have been our jobs and our intellectual property rights.

China--Your jobs and intellectual property are ours!!--China

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The price paid for manufacturing inexpensive solar voltaics in China is a horror story for the environment. I won't be around to see mutations and cancer damage but I certainly feel that the quest to free us from petroleum has its own price and it is very very steep.

California recently saw what it considered to be almost hysterically hot weather and not not for merely a day or so. Nuclear plants have been shuttered there are no new hydro plants, no new strings of inter-tie transmission lines.

And not the slightest peep of an emergency: No brownouts, no importation of energy, no rolling blackouts, nor cutbacks of energy to industry.

I will NEVER forget one drought where so many people saved so much water, that one large utility sent its customers (this isn't a joke) a special letter...

"Due to the unprecedented reduction of water consumption, XXX Utility is facing a financial crisis and therefore measures to be taken to avoid financial catastrophe must include a (substantial double digit) increase in water rates including a doubling of basic water service to homes and businesses"

The fools ran a TWELVE INCH water pipe across the Richmond San Rafael Bridge (still seen today on the south side against the railing) whose cost would take 60+ years to amortize at time of construction. Marin (Moron) County, the pipe's destination, has the San Francisco Bay Areas most "premier" suburbia with wealthy estates that include "cost is no object" landscaping. The taxpayer funded water pipe was calculated to be almost sufficient to keep shrubbery green and olympic size pools filled for fewer than 300 homes.

Never underestimate the potential of government stupidity. If there EVER arises this sort of terminated pregnancy in your area, DEMAND public disclosure of whether or not your state and local governments have the GALL to be taxing these institutions. Then go after records of utility executive's wages, perks, golden parachutes, and expense accounts.

Down here in bureaucracy heaven, the federal thieves tax petroleum sold to a government owned utility that in turn added yet ANOTHER sixteen percent tax on power delivered. The consumer gets the shaft. When complaints mount the government threatens to sell CFE to the highest bidder. Look at California electrical deregulation history and see where THAT takes you...

[time2roll]

My payback is five years on my home 3 kW system. That is a 20 percent return on my money invested and I am pleased with it just for economics alone. Today the investment would be even better due to continued cost reductions for installation.

We need the coal workers to retrain to install solar.

[darsben1]

Your fine until the local power company charges you for your solar.

[maillemaker]

It's such a shame that we let other countries take the lead on solar power. Those could have been our jobs and our intellectual property rights.

[Flyfasteddie]

I just finished having a 6kw system installed on my home. Awaiting state and power company inspections and hoping to be able to turn on in a couple of weeks.

I built my house on a 5 acre parcel 14 years ago with an eye toward solar in the future (roof oriented south, with large south facing windows for convective solar heating, trees strategically planted for shade without blocking the panel area, etc)

At the time solar was not even remotely cost-effective. Each year it has gotten better, but this year it finally became viable with a local clean energy alliance non-profit teaming up with 2 solar contractors to provide a substantial group discount.

My payback period after federal and state tax incentives would be about 10 years if the power rate from the utility stayed constant. Considering the increases of the last few years it should be well shorter than that.

We have a pretty solid net-metering program which allows an unlimited carry-over of unused kwh's. Our house is heated electrically so we will bank a ton of credits in the summer during our 16 hour days to offset our winter usage. It will completely zero out our power bill over the course of a year.

I really started getting interested after installing solar on our MH 3 years ago. After seeing what a fantastic benefit it was for boondocking, I can't wait to get our home system online.

[clarkster]

I think a modern nuclear plant can fill the power needs into the future.

Once some brilliant scientist can mitigate the waste into a pile of garden fertilizer.

[jkwilson]

Certainly good news.

I still have to wonder how successful it will be in eliminating fossil fuel power plants. I've tried small scale with pumping water, lighting a remote storage building and powering an electric fence. Works great in the summer, but our short gloomy winter days don't produce much power.