Solar cells are usually made of silicon coated with a thin layer of silicon nitrate. This silicon nitrate works as an anti-reflective agent to boost cell efficiency. But the catch is these types of cells are costly to produce. This anti-reflective layer deposition happens in vacuum and creating vacuum like situation doesn’t come cheap!

More information >>>Spray on Solar Panels

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Solar cells are usually made of silicon coated with a thin layer of silicon nitrate. This silicon nitrate works as an anti-reflective agent to boost cell efficiency. But the catch is these types of cells are costly to produce. This anti-reflective layer deposition happens in vacuum and creating vacuum like situation doesn’t come cheap!

More information >>>Spray on Solar Panels

Thats outdated Matthew.
Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Photovoltaic cells aren't just made out of Silicon anymore, But Glass, Plastic and Ink, Which are known as Thinfilm cells.

Ink-Jet Printed, Thin-Film Solar Prototype By Konarka

FAQ: Thin-Film Solar



Two more links:

Plastic Power

Thin_Film_Solar wiki

125w panel for about $495.00 from HONDA.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

The things about solar cells are: How efficient are they and how long will they last until they break? Now I understand that sunlight provides about 1.5 horsepower per square yard or about 1.34 kilowatts per square meter. Now that solar panel next to that girl looks to be of at least one square meter but provides only 125 watts. That would suggest an efficiency of only about nine percent. And it costs half-a-grand. How long will it last before it breaks? Five years? 10 years? The one has to buy a new one.

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Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

He's still €4,000 behind.

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me@rescam.org

The things about solar cells are: How efficient are they and how long will they last until they break? Now I understand that sunlight provides about 1.5 horsepower per square yard or about 1.34 kilowatts per square meter. Now that solar panel next to that girl looks to be of at least one square meter but provides only 125 watts. That would suggest an efficiency of only about nine percent. And it costs half-a-grand. How long will it last before it breaks? Five years? 10 years? The one has to buy a new one.

Actually It's currently at 6% and with more R&D they quoted 12%. Thinfilm panels will last longer If encased in glass, less If their not and with mass production being as old as the printing press, The prices should drop over time, So don't dis It.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

solar technology

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

solar technology

Nice link.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

He's still €4,000 behind.

Actually no He by far ahead. THink about how much each of us send to power companies each year and then think about how little you'd be sending to them after the solar cells are installed. THe money his father is spending is now being spent on himself instead of putting it in the pockets of the power companies. After 5 years the Equipment has paid for itself. How soon will we have paid for our share of the electric company? Simple math = never.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

He's still €4,000 behind.

How so?

Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

He's still €4,000 behind.

Actually no He by far ahead. THink about how much each of us send to power companies each year and then think about how little you'd be sending to them after the solar cells are installed. THe money his father is spending is now being spent on himself instead of putting it in the pockets of the power companies. After 5 years the Equipment has paid for itself. How soon will we have paid for our share of the electric company? Simple math = never.

You need to define the term save. Is that €2.000 that he saves after paying for the investment of the €10.000 for the cells or is that the reduction in his power bill?

Most people get this calculation wrong. They forget to put compare the savings to the amount that say a bank account earning compound interest would be worth over the same time period. The real comparison is invest €10.000 in solar cells or invest it in a bank.

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Germany is the biggest producer of solar panels.
My friends dad installed solar panel on his house.
He paid €10.000 three years ago.
He saves 2000 each year.
So hows the math?

He's still €4,000 behind.

Actually no He is ahead by far . Think about how much each of us send to power companies each year and then think about how little you'd be sending to them after the solar cells are installed. THe money his father is spending is now being spent on himself instead of putting it in the pockets of the power companies. After 5 years the Equipment has paid for itself. How soon will we have paid for our share of the electric company? Simple math = never.

You need to define the term save. Is that €2.000 that he saves after paying for the investment of the €10.000 for the cells or is that the reduction in his power bill?

Most people get this calculation wrong. They forget to put compare the savings to the amount that say a bank account earning compound interest would be worth over the same time period. The real comparison is invest €10.000 in solar cells or invest it in a bank.

If the cells last a minimum of 10 years and they are paid for in 5 by not having to pay for electricity. I assume its costing 2000 euros a year for electricity which he now keeps for himself. I dont see any bank account making that kind of return. so a 10000 euro investment pays for itself in 5 years and lasts 10 years. so thats 10,000 euros saved over 10 years. Only bernie madoff could get you a better return on your investment. THats 10,000 euros that he can invest in whatever he wants so not only does he save the 10k euros but he can spend that 10k on whatever he wants. I'm not sure why people worry about investments when they talk about this. I've stated before that no matter what you pay you will always owe the electric company if you stay on the grid. Thats not a good investment.

Don't forget we are talking about not sending money to an the electric companies.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Don't forget we are talking about not sending money to an the electric companies.

But what about the Spary?

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me@rescam.org

I'd love to run my seti running computers entirely from solar energy. Unfortunately it's not going to happen soon.
When you see people to claim to be running entirely from solar panels, they are usually using one laptop only when they need it.
Being a seti junky (general tech head - I do create other applications that are almost as hungry as sah) I have managed to constrain myself to just 3 boxes. Actual measured power consumption of one (Q6600) was 170W while running sah. I have not measured since adding cuda capable cards. (I'm eying off 4 remaining pci-e slots wondering when I can afford to fill them). So lets be optimistic and say 200W each.
Over a year, half the time is night, and half the daylight hours are dim enough to not generate large amounts of power. So if I want to power 600W of computers I may need about 2400W of solar capacity - before I think of running anything else so I need at least a 3kW system which is around AU$30,000. I'm currently paying about $3500 per year for electricity. If I was to borrow 30,000 the interest would be equivalent to around 1/2 years electricity. So, yes, eventually I'd be ahead with an estimated 25 year life on current panels, although the inverter may not last this long.
If I get around to building another house, where this is just a small percentage of the total, then this should get included. Until then, my current house does not even have a suitable roof for photovoltaic panels. Oh well.
It would be interesting, although possibly scary to compute the carbon footprint of sah. From measuring my pc power consumption, it's clear that even small periods of inactivity results in lower power consumption, so even busy server farms where sah is a small portion of total load should show definable sah power consumption.

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