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No way. Just propaganda from the econutters. Look at all the cropping land that is covered by the stuff as well as just natural (green) vegetation. BTW, an average wall battery for a home lasts about 3 hours (5 at most for 2 lights) before needing recharging. Too bad if next day is cloudy.
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Most production solar panels are still only 18-30% efficient, 40% under the most controlled lab conditions, maybe higher in space-based applications where the atmosphere is not an issue. In order to be a true replacement for fossil fuels, that efficiency will need to be 75-80% or higher. I’m an all-of-the-above type person when it comes to sources of energy, so I wish them luck in improving the technolo
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And do all the scientists have solar power for their homes? How about all these rich politicians? I think not
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Other fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are the biggest sources of fuel for power generation. Solar combined with wind, hydro, biofuels and off peak storage can provide a steady power supply. It will probably never be as cheap in real terms as petroleum was when we first started to exploit it, but those easily available oil supplies are long gone and will never return. It takes more and more energy to extract and refine the remaining petroleum. It is a losing game and we need to get realistic about how to power our civilization.
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Cris see what people like you don’t understand is that solar still produces power even when cloudy – because solar doesn’t rely SOLELY on “visible light” – which is why places like Germany for example, which is pretty grey throughout the year can still do very well using solar.
Now times that over “thousands of panels” and what happens to the grid? Its called REDUNDANCY… It can’t be cloudy, everywhere, at once. Smarty pants – and clearly you dont know enough about solar or green energy to be commenting, because solar panels dont get plugged directly in to the grid. They are always apart of a system, a system which would include batteries. Thus, again, giving you time until your full output production is possible.
The idea that we need coal/oil/gas at all is ridiculous. We can do everything we need with technology that already exists. Want a “full time” power source? ok, geothermal… thermal up/down draft towers, the ocean… now add that to all the other green sources that already exist. We absolutely do NOT need fossil fuels.
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Fuck the grid, produce your own power! Or do you enjoy paying others to take care of you?
Reply Just agreeing with you, America is far behind other countries but hey we got beer and NFL.
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I’m in the UK. Clouds going over my panels aren’t a problem. When my panels are generating a lot of power (more than I’m using at the time), I sell it back to the grid. When the panels are not producing much, I buy a little power from the grid. Now my kids have left home, I produce more power than I can use. I thought about fitting the battery thing to the outside wall to store some, but cost wise it doesn’t stack up at the moment. If the kids move back (again!) then I might well fit the battery. Then I probably wouldn’t need to buy in any power from the grid at all. Solar is most definitely the way forward as far as I’m concerned 🙂
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Jill Adams that’s a great story Jill but you don’t seem to understand how it works . It’s like a car driving down the road . Along a flat motorway the car runs great it cruises along but when it gets to a hill (cloud) then it slows down and needs more power to get up the hill at the same speed . Now our homes , offices and factories need a constant power voltage to much and it blows things up and not enough it browns out . Yes solar works great but isn’t reliable enough to run without gas or nuclear or some other bass load power .
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Oil, hell we’re still pimping the true environment destroyer: coal. Our ‘leaders’ in both parties want to destroy the planet.
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Currently the cleanest coal powerplant is in the us. Its emissions barely register on teating equipment. The only reason coal is still a contributor is because obamas admin tried to shut them down and stiffled further innovation on upgrading older plants. In the us coal is one of the cleanest energy production methods their is. In china and india not so much.
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So this is why Obama gave millions to cylindra only to find out China rules. At least let trump try to get it back.
Reply Here’s an idea, before you get your free check, spend an hour on a treadmill generating power.
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While this is certainly true, we must be cautious not to turn a solution into a new form of problem. Many of the countries that are making great strides in green energy are doing so by building solar farms. Huge swaths of land which could be forests or farms, but are being employed for nothing other than solar generation. Meanwhile we have billions of hectares of rooftops on existing structures, sidewalks and pavement that are not being used for power generation and instead are made with materials which increase the Earth’s albedo, thus worsening the problem.
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this is true, but how many metric tones of silver are going to be needed to create all those solar panels. not to mention all the energy needed to be put into the system in the first place.
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