What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
This has been discussed on another thread but the search facility is not my friend.
This is the year that the cost of electricity from solar power will drop below the cost of grid-generated power.
The long-awaited fall in the cost of solar power is just around the corner. As huge amounts of additional manufacturing capacity come on stream over the next few months, the price of grid-electricity continues to rise.
Prices for solar components are set to drop by next year from about $3.80 per watt to about $1.40 a watt. According to Dean Cooper, an analyst at Ambrian Capital, the global manufacturing capacity for solar modules is set to increase ?dramatically?, from 3 gigawatts last year to 15 to 20 gigawatts of production by 2010.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
thats all well and good but SME businesses won't be able to afford solar energy as the output might not be effecient enough to power a business - plus, with the rising costs of overheads, buying solar panels are probably not the priority for most businesses which struggle and spend their profits on keeping the lights on!
The best advice would be to be energy effecient and shop around for the best price when it comes to renewal time!
Good idea though - we all need options on renewable resources!
SME's who invest in solar etc now (make hay while the sun is shining) will have a huge advantage when the rolling blackouts hit in 2010-2012. Obviously if they are energy intensive companies solar won't work and maybe they need to be bulk buying energy supplies.
Energy efficiency is obviously important, but so is securing your own energy supply. Or you could just trust Malcolm to sort it all out for you!
Jim
For every complex problem, there is a simple answer, and it's wrong.
"Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs" (Lao Tzu V.i).
echurchill - E4B wrote:thats all well and good but SME businesses won't be able to afford solar energy as the output might not be effecient enough to power a business - plus, with the rising costs of overheads, buying solar panels are probably not the priority for most businesses which struggle and spend their profits on keeping the lights on!
What do you mean by "won't be able to afford solar energy as the output might not be efficient enough to power a business "? How are you thinking about efficiency?
If the cost of electricity from solar power really does drop below the cost of grid-generated power within the next year or so (which I don't believe for a second here in the UK) then it's a no-brainer for a small business. Any investment in solar will be guaranteed to deliver returns. Not many investments can offer that.
A raft of new rules have just come into effect here, making it mandatory for new builds to have PV panels. I think it's a minimum of 1kw for houses up to 100sqm footprint, 2kw for 100-200sqm, and more if it's bigger.
contadino wrote:A raft of new rules have just come into effect here, making it mandatory for new builds to have PV panels. I think it's a minimum of 1kw for houses up to 100sqm footprint, 2kw for 100-200sqm, and more if it's bigger.
Commercial properties start at a minimum of 4kw.
Excellent news, solar is not the complete answer, but should certainly play an increasing role.
I particularly like the fact that bigger homes are required to have a bigger PV array, like the poor, the rich will allways be with us. Better that the well off with larger homes should be required to have a larger arrar.
This should stimulate the still larger scale production of PV modules and perhaps bring down the price, in the long term.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
echurchill - E4B wrote:thats all well and good but SME businesses won't be able to afford solar energy
Some won't, that's true. It's a silly generalisation though.
echurchill - E4B wrote:the output might not be effecient enough to power a business
Surely it depends upon the business - again, you're generalising.
echurchill - E4B wrote:plus, with the rising costs of overheads, buying solar panels are probably not the priority for most businesses which struggle and spend their profits on keeping the lights on!
You don't see any contradiction in your statement? None at all?
echurchill - E4B wrote:The best advice would be to be energy effecient and shop around for the best price when it comes to renewal time!
Or maybe go for solar pv.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
