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Solar Panels: Back to the Dark Ages
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France’s General de Gaulle once said that the only thing that would unite Europe would be China. At the time he was probably visionary in the knowledge that the Europeans would never unite. There was too much rivalry and there always has been. The British and the French have always been at odds and the French have always been jealously wary of the German’s capacity to work harder than they can and to show the full fruit of their industriousness. The Germans have always secretly known that they are the best and looked down upon the then agriculturally-oriented (and therefore worthless, in their eyes) countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal. He certainly got one other thing correct when he said that it would be the Chinese.
Europeans would only unite when the Chinese forced them to.
China has become not only demographically the leading country of the world, but they have become economically the country to invest in and commercially number one. That’s all cause for concern.
They have taken over from Japan as the Land of the Rising Sun. The sun set a long time ago on that Empire and we don’t even need to mention the failures of the US system that have resulted in its decline. The good thing about the Chinese is that they have no qualms about despising democracy and espousing dictatorship. The West just makes a show of brash support for the former and public outcry at the latter. Then, it does exactly as it chooses, flouting what itdictates to be democratic. The West dictates democracy while the Chinese plod on solemnly on their Long March towards success. China is already the number one trading nation of the world and has been since 2012.
Left in the Dark
The West will be left in the dark begging for the lights to come back on soon as they realize that China has not only become the world leader in yet something else, namely solar-panels, but also that the West has been pointing their own solar panels in the wrong direction now for years.
A new study that was carried out in the US has suddenly discovered that the solar panels that have been installed around the world and that all face South are in actual fact facing the wrong direction.
According to the study carried out by the Pecan Street Research Institute if the panels face West, they increase electricity production by 49% during peak demand.
What is surprising is that nobody has ever carried out a study on the best direction to gain increases in electricity generation. People simply presumed that it was South that would give the best energy-supply levels. The study showed the panels that faced South only generated a 54%-peak reduction (peak: 3pm to 7pm), while panels that faced Westwards were able to generate a 65%-peak reduction. The CEO of Pecan Street Research Brewster McCracken stated that “there was no other residential demand response tool generating 60% reductions.”
Europe and the West will be going back to lighting candles that they will probably end up buying also from the Chinese in the next few years. How is it conceivable to imagine that those that are paid to do research might not have actually carried out tests to see in which direction the solar panels should have been facing?
- By using solar panels the world could be powered with relatively little surface area covered today by their installation.
- It would take about the surface area of Spain to do so or just over 190, 000 square miles.
- Today however the US only generates 0.17% of its power from photovoltaic sources, generating 6.9 million megawatt-hours of electricity.
- Solar energy has increased in the USA and in 2007 it increased by 17%.
- There are some that believe that it could grow to an estimated 10% of energy needs of the USA within the next decade.
- The US accounts for 10% of the world’s market share of installations and its own electric capacity from solar power increased by 76% between 2011 and 2012.
- The Federal government believes that it is a viable source of energy and just powering the US would only use 0.5% of the available energy that the sun has, according to experts.
- There is a current investment of $968 million via federal subsidies to the solar-power industry in the US.
China is set to become the world’s leader in all renewable energy sources. Not only will they have the world economically-speaking but they will have the world in terms of controlling their energy supply.
- China plans to produce 21 gigawatts by 2015 from solar power.
- 80% of electricity comes from coal today in China and the recent problems with air pollution that have plagued major cities are set to be a thing of the past.
- China has become the world’s largest producer of solar panels in the world and they have managed to do so in just two years (with 30% of the solar-panel market today).
- Research (Harvard and Tsinghua Universities) shows that all electricity demand could be met by renewable sources within the next fifteen years for the country.
Let’s hope they manage to get the panels facing in the right direction!
Originally posted: Solar Panels: Back to the Dark Ages
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I don't contribute here much, and I won't junk you OC, but I can't just give you that arguement either.
People will think nothing of financing a 50k dollar pickup, and pay for it each month for 87 months....then sell if for 6k...ROI...a whopping total of -44k dollars...Or..spend 8k on a properly sized solar array, like so many have to do in Alaska...(a utility pole can cost 61k there)...and instead of feeding the dik cheney bear...you can pay for a brand new pickup every year, using your dollars that would otherwise be spent on electric bill..at least where I live...I was averaging 3000 dollars per year on dik cheney lobby group.
You're obviously not adding the value of whatever you do with the pickup, that you couldn't do without (or had to hire, at a cost).
Solar does cost 5 times more than other sources, and I'm talking about sunny Portugal - I posted a graph long ago, that showed it literally like a sore thumb (actually, middle finger) sticking out among all other 4 sources - the source was the power company that buys it; Germany is 8 times more, avg.
And who told you Dick isn't cashing in on it, as well? Among the early investors in "alternative" fuels research were oil co.s (and why wouldn't they, if there's money to be made, even if just from subsidies, as presently?).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXctY1K4wko
Solar is bullshit, it cost more in energy to manufacture and install solar panels that they'll ever produce before they wear out. Solar is actually a tool for transferring energy and socialism from china to America, and we send them air pollution which gives 8yo children lung cancer.
As a New York (Stater) all i have to say is the moment we all start getting along i think there is a problem too. Europe? They should fit in just fine.
Yep, Europe fits in just fine... http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-m...
Is english a second language for Pivot Farm? The sentence structure is awful and the article is incoherent. NREL calculates solar radiation absorption by solar panels, and it makes only minor difference with orientation in daily production, as long as shade does not get in the way.
Setting up solar fab plants are cheap, so no advantage to China, and the next generation of solar will blow your mind. It will be embedded in the structures, or molded, or in glass, or in paint. China can keep their investments.
I'd be more worried about China surviving 3D technology than the west worried about China, and once battery storage technology gets better, cheaper, and safer, the Middle East can kiss my a**, as well.
Solarman,
There isn't a single thing wrong with the grannar or structure of this article. Actually it's well written. If you disagree with the premise then say so. For the record, your last paragraph is both a run-on mish-mash and not a paragraph.
Well, actually, there is something wrong with the graMMar in the article:
"Setting up solar fab plants are cheap," is incorrect. It is not "are cheap" since it refers to the setting up and not the solar fab plants.
Read as "Setting up is cheap."
But the article is still coherent and informative.
Quote from the Pivot Farm article :
Presumably this is a copy and pasted article and yet I see no disclaimer by PivotFarm regardling the content ! ? ! ? Point me in the direction if i missed it.
actually English is my first language. You should see me try and spell in French...let alone Chinese. You should see the Chinese try and spell in Chinese actually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-GD57m_NNk that's the only word i know how to spell in that language anymore. that's a really good way to spell it actually. here's an interesting primer if you want to simply get to know the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4ghtJolXC8 they've been doing this for a long time. (that would be ink and paper in case you're wondering.) we've lost this art in the English speaking world in my view...not that my handwriting is any good either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGlMGg4JcKQ it's just very peaceful to watch to me.
"once battery storage technology gets better, cheaper, and safer, the Middle East can kiss my a**, as well."
Good luck with that sucker!
People have been banking on that since 1900 and guess what?
Batteries have not advanced much at all. The best storage batteries are almost identical to what was used 50 years ago.
Keep praying to your puny god TECHNOLOGY.
You want to use solar power after the sun goes down, you need lead acid batteries, lots of them. And, they last only a couple years at most.
a 100 Ah battery (truck size) is about a kWh. A house that uses 500 kWh a month (that's lights, cooking, TV, and no A/C), needs 16 kWH a day. With some reserve that house would need 10 100Ah batteries.
That's a lot of lead. Of course, we will be buying that from the Chinese also.
I totally agree with you.
lol, another funny one unable to look at real figures ...
I agree what a load of BS.
I've also read that to power the US alone, it would take a solar panel the size of Texas.
Europe has massive import taxes on solar panels from China. Because they care about the environment?
Well either you read wrong, or simply like to make shit up...