ENER Australian scientists announce solar energy breakthrough (Up to more than 40% efficient)

[WFK]

OK for those people who have installed solar panels recently or in the past has it been a cost effective exercise, has it reduced energy bills or allowed additional consumption etc

No!

 

[Trivium Pursuit]

Didn't some Chinese just have a breakthrough in the battery area? Maybe it was just tiny cellphone batteries; don't remember.

 

[Rastech]

A point to remember even with good and improved batteries, conversion efficiencies are not great.

A good rule of thumb is, if you take 50 amps out of a battery, you have to put in 75 amps to get it back to fully charged.

Then you have losses through cables, inverters, etc.

Whilst these are far from insignificant, you can still work with the systems to get useful benefits (as long as the costs are sensible).

With wind for example, if you have a rated capacity of 1500 watts, you are going to average about 22% of that. So about 330 watts. Still useful, of course, but it does show clearly that all the claims made for wind and solar, tend to need to be taken with a wheelbarrow of salt.

This is why a lot of wind and solar are completely uneconomic without subsidies (and such things should never be subsidised at Public Expense).

 

[hiwall]

Rastech has excellent points.
Also the big break through in the article was an increase from 33% efficiency up to 40% efficiency or a 7% increase. Not a HUGE deal.

 

[Richard]

if wind and solar have to be subsidised they are not economic in the first place, goes without saying

that's why they're pushing the CO2 scam

 

[buttie]

Well Richard, in our case the 3.4 kw system on our off-grid home is cost effective. My assertion is that to bring in utility power it would have cost us around $120k for over a mile of power lines. Our solar system cost us $34k in 2007 and has been powering our home and business since then. So for new construction it can be quite economical. The reality is that our FLA battery pack is rated for 2100 cycles and cost $4k and has a life expectancy of 10-20 years. We're now @ 7 years and the batteries are showing some degradation, but not much.

 

[Richard]

Well Richard, in our case the 3.4 kw system on our off-grid home is cost effective. My assertion is that to bring in utility power it would have cost us around $120k for over a mile of power lines. Our solar system cost us $34k in 2007 and has been powering our home and business since then. So for new construction it can be quite economical. The reality is that our FLA battery pack is rated for 2100 cycles and cost $4k and has a life expectancy of 10-20 years. We're now @ 7 years and the batteries are showing some degradation, but not much.

for off grid it is a good solution, probably the only one, how much sunlight do you get in your neck of the woods assuming you are talking about solar panels

 

[Christian for Israel]

True...but, where are you going to get nickle-iron batteries? They haven't been made in this country for quite some time and the last factory to make them that i know of was over in Eastern Europe and I don't believe they are still being manufactured there anymore. Not to mention that they are huge and HEAVY! Not a problem for solar home use, but forget it for any form of electric transportation.

Batteries, electrical storage, are the Achilles Heel of alternative technology. We need to come up with something better than one to two hundred year old technology.

i intend to build my own. a welded steel box, lined with glass sheets and cells made of nickel and iron, flooded with the phosphoric acid electrolyte. when i do i'll post the details here (after i work out the inevitable bugs).

 

[tm1439m]

No subsidies. Size of house has no bearing, you must choose to heat with non electric, cook with gas or wood, etc.

Batteries...depends on what amount of watts you plan to use at night. We usually use about 2500 watt hours at night. So with deep cell batteries they must hold at least 5000 watt hours. For us right now that's 4 t-105s at about $200 each. But I consider us to be low on battery power...

Oh, I can cook with an induction cooktop during the day, use an electric toaster, microwave, and have a couple of 400/800 watt electric heaters, but only use them during the day when the sun is well out...

Thanks. When I asked what size house I was curious as to the heat and air load you had. You have made it clear that it is not a factor for you because you do not use electric heat/ heat pump.

I am planning to build a small very efficient home for my wife and I to live. We use very little electricity now and most energy used would be during the day. Planning for an electric heat pump sounds like a high cost endeavor as far a solar goes.

Night power usage is almost nothing for us. We only use one cfl at night, 13 watts. And then a .3 watt LED night light in the bath room that gets the job done. We watch a few hours of TV most nights as well. Then to bed for another day coming.