bipolarber
Posts: 2792
Joined: 9/25/2004 Status: offline
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If it has any farther to go, it's in the realm of national commitment. Recently, my wife and I toured a demo home here in Little Rock. It was a new construction that was a co-operative effort between several companies that supply new tech for alternative energy systems. The house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 3 car garage type, with a full basement, and it's own solar power system. Primary power for the house was via it's pV roofing, and its hot water, central heat/air all being electrical. For night time hours, the energy was stored via a set of rechargable lithium batteries located in the crawlspace. Thanks to the advance insulation techniques, the actual need for much in the way of heat/air was minimal. The boast was, this house was as close to $0 in energy costs to operate . In talking to the reps, they had been running the system in the house for a year, and so far, the only time they had needed to switch back to the grid was for two weeks in January, when we had sub zero temps for a week. A yearly power bill of $28.00 was the result. (In other, northern areas, this shortfall could be averted by either having larger storage systems, or larger collection areas, say, the roof of a seperate garage or barn also feeding the sytem.) As a kicker, they had a recharging "dock" built into the garage for an electric car. No need for gas to get around town, no need to pay for your heat, or electricity. Just upkeep. The price was roughly twice what you would pay for a regular grid connected home... but, as the reps said, the price is actually less, after you work in what you'd otherwise be paying for energy over the span of a standard 30 year mortgage.... even with the additional interest to be paid to the bank, thanks to the higher principal. And with state and federal incentives, the savings is pretty substantial. So no, I don't think I'll be swayed by the arguments that solar is a "tinker toy" technology. It's here. It's viable. With mass production, costs will plummet, just as it has for every other tech we've embraced. No pollutants, no radioactive wastes, no excuses. All it takes is the will, and electing leaders who AREN'T in the oil business.
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