- Dec 18, 2013
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this!!!And were we to cover the industrial and commercial roofs within the cities with solar, a large percentage of the cities power would be self supplied.
That's simply not true unless you are in Arizona and similar places with little weather, and high sunlight energy.
Even so, currently solar panels just barely make enough power to meet or exceed the power used in their creation, and the costs per kWh, is still a hundred times higher than conventional power.
We'll know Solar Panels have finally arrived when the solar panel factories disconnect from the power grid, and can run exclusively on the power generated by their own product. Until that happens, I wager the idea of solar powered cities is still a long way off.
Of course you never know. A break through could happen right around the corner. But thus far, drastic increases in PV efficiency has come at massively highers prices. New Cadmium telluride photovoltaics, with high 40% efficiency, come with steep price tags, making them impractical for all but aerospace applications.
I doubt we'll be seeing cities covered in panels any time soon. Just my opinion.