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236 comments on DrumBeat: February 21, 2007

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radlafari on February 21, 2007 - 10:08am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Solar power to outshine carbon rival on pricing

Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon- generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia.

In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half.

Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels.

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ggg71 on February 21, 2007 - 3:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Interesting article.

I have a question though, how many solar panels would be required to power the facility?

In the same vain, if you powered an ethanol plant with ethanol instead of natural gas, how much ethanol does it take to make a barrel of ethanol?

Thanks,

Garth

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thomas deplume on February 21, 2007 - 6:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As for using ethanol to make ethanol it just would be too expensive using current farming and distilling practices. If farms used organic methods with minimal use of irrigation (going back to old fashion windpumps would help) then fuel use on the farm could be cut in half. An Iowa engineer figured that instead of selling the DDGS byproduct the distillery could get all its energy needs from burning it.
It's mostly a matter of changing a few rules of the game.

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jokuhl on February 21, 2007 - 9:01pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Point to consider;
The comparison is a little off, since those panels would be providing power for decades, while you'd be refilling your ethanol tanks continually.

PV panels can replace their embodied energy in under 2 years (Homepower.. http://www.homepower.com/files/pvpayback.pdf ), while they are typically warranteed for 20 to 25, and still could be producing with a gentle downslope well beyond that. Suffice to say that PV has an Energy ROI on the order of 10 or more already, (new developments not included) which is far and away out of the reach of current ethanol ratios.

Still, we really ought to be using the punch of the FF's we use today to get a jump on PV and WindPower manufacturing, as their surpluses will have a lot of mouths to be feeding once the tanks start drying up and rusting. The markets are clearly showing the benefits of these sources without a lot of civic support, but a 'Manhattan Project' it is not. Not yet.

Bob Fiske

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TrueKaiser on February 21, 2007 - 9:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

let me point out the key phrase here.

Within five years

it's a prediction. and should be filed with the same articles saying we will have $30 oil again.

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jokuhl on February 21, 2007 - 11:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

AND the ones that say it'll be $500, too.

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