Solar power will soon be as cheap as coal

[ScienceRocks]

Solar power will soon be as cheap as coal

Inside a sprawling single-story office building in Bedford, Massachusetts, in a secret room known as the Growth Hall, the future of solar power is cooking at more than 2,500 °F. Behind closed doors and downturned blinds, custom-built ovens with ambitious names like “Fearless” and “Intrepid” are helping to perfect a new technique of making silicon wafers, the workhorse of today’s solar panels. If all goes well, the new method could cut the cost of solar power by more than 20% in the next few years.

“This humble wafer will allow solar to be as cheap as coal and will drastically change the way we consume energy,” says Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies, the company behind the new method of wafer fabrication....

Read on!

Solar is about ready to destroy coal!

 

[Old Rocks]

And then there are the ongoing developments in thin film. By 2025, solar is going to be far cheaper than any kind of fossil fuel.

 

[pwjohn]

If solar is so cheap than why are the Germans paying 34 cents per kW hour?
I'm paying less than a third of that figure.

 

[Skull Pilot]

and it still only works half the time so to be as cheap as coal in reality it would have to be half the cost of coal wouldn't it?

 

[pwjohn]

It only works half the time part of the time, depending on the season.

 

[Old Rocks]

There is another revolution in energy and it's distribution starting this year. That is grid scale batteries. And China is already making major investments and purchases, some from the US, in this technology.

 

[flacaltenn]

There is another revolution in energy and it's distribution starting this year. That is grid scale batteries. And China is already making major investments and purchases, some from the US, in this technology.

Sure thing there ORocks. We've done the China "grid scale" miracle before. But of course, you've forgotten the picture of the football stadium size installation of toxic waste that costs $500M and only serves to store energy for 6,000 homes for about 4 hours.. You've a scam artist who cant' accept reality because it would destroy your sales pitch..

As far as this thread goes. Does "cheaper" include the cost of the PRINCIPAL power station that provides energy all night and during bad weather -- but sits idle with the employees eating donuts when the sun is out? What group of morons is gonna fund the development of REAL power stations when the govt requires you to shut down randomly and at their whim to take a bit of solar electricity?

 

[JoeMoma]

It's good to have options.

 

[Old Rocks]

There is another revolution in energy and it's distribution starting this year. That is grid scale batteries. And China is already making major investments and purchases, some from the US, in this technology.

Sure thing there ORocks. We've done the China "grid scale" miracle before. But of course, you've forgotten the picture of the football stadium size installation of toxic waste that costs $500M and only serves to store energy for 6,000 homes for about 4 hours.. You've a scam artist who cant' accept reality because it would destroy your sales pitch..

As far as this thread goes. Does "cheaper" include the cost of the PRINCIPAL power station that provides energy all night and during bad weather -- but sits idle with the employees eating donuts when the sun is out? What group of morons is gonna fund the development of REAL power stations when the govt requires you to shut down randomly and at their whim to take a bit of solar electricity?

LOL. At the rate the solar installations are going in, there generation will be far more than a bit. And when you can store that power, then why pollute the ground, water, and air by using coal when solar is both cleaner and cheaper.

Before you say nukes, you get about 800 mW of energy in the form of electricity, and throw away about 2000 mW in the form of waste heat. Entropy strikes again. Where the wind and solar do not generate waste heat that you end up putting into the air or water.

 

[flacaltenn]

There is another revolution in energy and it's distribution starting this year. That is grid scale batteries. And China is already making major investments and purchases, some from the US, in this technology.

Sure thing there ORocks. We've done the China "grid scale" miracle before. But of course, you've forgotten the picture of the football stadium size installation of toxic waste that costs $500M and only serves to store energy for 6,000 homes for about 4 hours.. You've a scam artist who cant' accept reality because it would destroy your sales pitch..

As far as this thread goes. Does "cheaper" include the cost of the PRINCIPAL power station that provides energy all night and during bad weather -- but sits idle with the employees eating donuts when the sun is out? What group of morons is gonna fund the development of REAL power stations when the govt requires you to shut down randomly and at their whim to take a bit of solar electricity?

LOL. At the rate the solar installations are going in, there generation will be far more than a bit. And when you can store that power, then why pollute the ground, water, and air by using coal when solar is both cleaner and cheaper.

Before you say nukes, you get about 800 mW of energy in the form of electricity, and throw away about 2000 mW in the form of waste heat. Entropy strikes again. Where the wind and solar do not generate waste heat that you end up putting into the air or water.

Not impressed by thermal efficiencies of nuke plants. MUCH more impressed that you can power a home for a year on 0.7 ounce of waste.

You cannot store enough solar power to make it a 24/7/365 alternative without SEVERE cost and enviro pollution problems. It's not an alternative -- it's an opportunistic "daytime peaker" technology that MIGHT reduce the required peak generation requirement during the day by about 15 to 20% at best.. That's PEAK -- not average daytime load.

You didn't answer my question about whether solar being cheaper includes the waste cost of idling MAIN power plants during peak solar hours? Can you say Homer Simpson sitting on his ass eating donuts and still getting paid?

 

[Old Rocks]

Well, that is your claim. Of course, two years ago, people like you were saying that solar and wind would never be cheaper than coal.

 

[jimsouth]

Solar power will soon be as cheap as coal

Inside a sprawling single-story office building in Bedford, Massachusetts, in a secret room known as the Growth Hall, the future of solar power is cooking at more than 2,500 °F. Behind closed doors and downturned blinds, custom-built ovens with ambitious names like “Fearless” and “Intrepid” are helping to perfect a new technique of making silicon wafers, the workhorse of today’s solar panels. If all goes well, the new method could cut the cost of solar power by more than 20% in the next few years.

“This humble wafer will allow solar to be as cheap as coal and will drastically change the way we consume energy,” says Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies, the company behind the new method of wafer fabrication....

Read on!

Solar is about ready to destroy coal!

So when can we expect the first solar powered steel mills?

 

[jimsouth]

Solar power will soon be as cheap as coal

Inside a sprawling single-story office building in Bedford, Massachusetts, in a secret room known as the Growth Hall, the future of solar power is cooking at more than 2,500 °F. Behind closed doors and downturned blinds, custom-built ovens with ambitious names like “Fearless” and “Intrepid” are helping to perfect a new technique of making silicon wafers, the workhorse of today’s solar panels. If all goes well, the new method could cut the cost of solar power by more than 20% in the next few years.

“This humble wafer will allow solar to be as cheap as coal and will drastically change the way we consume energy,” says Frank van Mierlo, CEO of 1366 Technologies, the company behind the new method of wafer fabrication....

Read on!

Solar is about ready to destroy coal!

So when can we expect the first solar powered steel mills?

No one on the planet would like to see clean cheap energy more than me. Short of a miracle, it will take many many years - if ever. To say it will happen over night is like saying Edison could jump from wax cylinder recording to digital recording over night.

 

[Old Rocks]

And who said we can do it overnight? But we can do it in one generation. And, with each year, the price of the renewables comes down.

 

[jimsouth]

And who said we can do it overnight? But we can do it in one generation. And, with each year, the price of the renewables comes down.

Do you have any idea how much energy a single steel mill requires?

 

[Old Rocks]

Yes, I have worked in one for the last 16 years as a millwright.

But wind supplies over 12% of the power created in Oregon. That would run several steel mills.

 

[flacaltenn]

And who said we can do it overnight? But we can do it in one generation. And, with each year, the price of the renewables comes down.

You've had 50 years and BILLIONS and the technology is SO MATURE that companies are competing solely on price now. We are WAAAAY past the wax cylinder stage as JimSouth puts it..

I know you've worked in steel.. Ask the Electrical staff how long wind would power the plant.. Was that on Tuesday or Wednesday that wind in Oregon could power a steel mill.. And -- would it make it into the 2nd shift on the same day?

 

[Old Rocks]

Mr. Flacaltenn, perhaps you should look a map of Oregon. Notice that river at the top of the map? And the bodies of water dammed up on that river? You see, when the wind is blowing, we do not have to run as much water through the turbines. And when it is not, we have the water saved up to do that. In that manner, the wind does help power our state, even when the wind is not blowing.

When the grid is extended into the south of our state, we will have a huge amount of wind, solar, and geothermal. And will not only have enough power for all of Oregon, but will help power California, Idaho, and Nevada.

 

[Wake]

I hope this is true.

There is promise in solar energy, and I support using it, but it needs to not be so expensive to start using it. To buy your own solar panels isn't cheap, currently.

With this potential, and additional research, we could be on to something that is beneficial to all.

 

[Ringel05]

And who said we can do it overnight? But we can do it in one generation. And, with each year, the price of the renewables comes down.

You've had 50 years and BILLIONS and the technology is SO MATURE that companies are competing solely on price now. We are WAAAAY past the wax cylinder stage as JimSouth puts it..

I know you've worked in steel.. Ask the Electrical staff how long wind would power the plant.. Was that on Tuesday or Wednesday that wind in Oregon could power a steel mill.. And -- would it make it into the 2nd shift on the same day?

Interesting...... Soooo, you have stock in coal, got it....... Hell why else would you be arguing so vehemently against renewables?
Half of what I'm reading you say is from years or decades ago (technology related), how long did it take this:

To become this;

They're discussing progress in the renewable field and you seem to be going off the deep end.....