Net metered electricity

[NorthSideSox72]

Cool article on a neat idea that is just starting to bloom. The idea is simple - people with solar panels can not only generate electricity to cover part or all of their usage, but if they generate more than they use, the energy can be netted back to the utility. So, people can not only be relatively energy independent, and green, they can also save even more money AND take some burden off the grid.

 

There are of course some potential problems to work through, but think about how cool this could be. Its sort of like distributed computing. One of the major disadvantages to solar power is that, at current efficiencies, you'd need to take up space the size of Nevada with panels to power the U.S. But, if you could have these panels on houses all over the country, you can really make headway.

[Balta1701]

One other nice thing...if you can absorb some of the solar energy that is falling on these urban areas and turn it into electricity, you have the added benefit of helping to fight against all of these urban "heat islands" that show up from all these paved roads, blacktops, roofs, and so on, that keep turning urban centers into ovens during the summer.

 

It's all a question of cost though. Right now, most of the decent solar sells are still based on Silicon, and that can be a very expensive way to build things, with a resource which is hard to produce.

[mr_genius]

sweet

[Chisoxfn]

It sounds awesome, but the costs of making the solar panels needs to decrease first. I know a few home builders have begun offering these as options on new homes (expensive options though).

 

However, it would be great if in the future homes could at least cover there air conditioning costs over the summer with the use of a solar panel (think of the impact that would have on the amount of non-solar energy we used, it would be tremendous).

 

Yet again though, the cost of solar panels must fall first.

[Balta1701]

Yet again though, the cost of solar panels must fall first.

Perhaps this is just me being overly hopeful, but I would not be terrifically surprised if there was a major breakthrough in solar panel design/technology within the next 5 years. (Especially now that the Democrats are in power and we can get some actual federal research dollars out there.) It just seems like one of those fields where there have been repeated reports of "Breakthroughs" with nothing yet put into practical production, so it seems primed to take the next step.

[Chisoxfn]

Perhaps this is just me being overly hopeful, but I would not be terrifically surprised if there was a major breakthrough in solar panel design/technology within the next 5 years. (Especially now that the Democrats are in power and we can get some actual federal research dollars out there.) It just seems like one of those fields where there have been repeated reports of "Breakthroughs" with nothing yet put into practical production, so it seems primed to take the next step.

Don't give me that, now that the dems are in power bull. I hate the stereotype that republicans just don't care about alternative energy, yada yada. Its like saying George Bush is a typical conservative (in terms of fiscal spending) because we know he isn't and one of my biggest gripes with Bush is exactly that.

 

I think the key is, if people start demanding and buying these for there homes (in a growing effort) the marketplace will dictate that more firms get involved with trying to make them and as such you'll have firms coming up with breakthroughs on how to produce them for less in order to try and gain what could be a potentially enormous market (if costs do fall enough). Ie, I think our capitalistic system could be exactly what we need for something like this to suceed. The key is we may need to have the gov subsidize the consumers with benefits for purchasing these more expensive things (that will create the market and than my hope is that well known conglomerates jump in as they see a lucrative possibility and start spurring and churning out a completely new marketplace).

 

I guess the debate would be whether it would be best to put the money in the hands of the businesses (to encourage R&D to come up with cheaper solar panels) or to give incentives to the buyers who in turn could really create a market (IIRC, they did something very similar to this in California with both electric and hybrid vehicles).