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Commanding_Heights
Heavy Crude
Joined: Nov 09, 2006
Posts: 208
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 Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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MIT boffins create window into evolved solar energy
Story Here |
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Cashmere
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Mar 27, 2008
Posts: 1971
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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IBIWISI
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Massive Human Dieoff must occur as a result of Peak Oil. Many more than half will die. It will occur everywhere, including where you live. If you fail to recognize this, then your odds of living move toward the "going to die" group. |
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Commanding_Heights
Heavy Crude
Joined: Nov 09, 2006
Posts: 208
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:46 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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Now what would make you distrust a claim like this? /sarcasmoff
I tend to agree with you and wouldn't generally believe it except it had the name MIT attached to it. |
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vetusfirma
Heavy Crude
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Joined: May 25, 2008
Posts: 219
Location: West KC
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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Interesting idea. hope it pans out.
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Cashmere
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Mar 27, 2008
Posts: 1971
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:09 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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The reason I don't believe these kinds of things until I see them is because I've heard/read about several hundred of them over the last few years but I have yet to see one implemented on any kind of scale.
In a lab at MIT under perfectly controlled conditions for 2 hours the panels were the next great invention.
On a pane of glass, on a solar panel, on your roof, they short out, they rot, they delaminate, they degrade . . .
In other words, IBIWISI because lab and real world are not the same thing, and all of these "next great thing" reports are always based on labs/short experiments.
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Massive Human Dieoff must occur as a result of Peak Oil. Many more than half will die. It will occur everywhere, including where you live. If you fail to recognize this, then your odds of living move toward the "going to die" group. |
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Confirmed
Coal
Joined: Jun 09, 2008
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:43 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| Cashmere wrote: | The reason I don't believe these kinds of things until I see them is because I've heard/read about several hundred of them over the last few years but I have yet to see one implemented on any kind of scale.
In a lab at MIT under perfectly controlled conditions for 2 hours the panels were the next great invention.
On a pane of glass, on a solar panel, on your roof, they short out, they rot, they delaminate, they degrade . . .
In other words, IBIWISI because lab and real world are not the same thing, and all of these "next great thing" reports are always based on labs/short experiments. |
I have seen promises for spray-on panels far longer than I've been a member at peakoil. The kind where they spray the roof of your car while you're on your lunch break. Kiss the gas station goodbye 
Americans will believe almost anything because it has always been cheap to believe. When there is no consequence for bad investment or lazy thinking then lazy thinking is not punished.
And what bought cheap beliefs? Cheap energy. Folks are just going to have to get smart or they die. |
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heroineworshipper
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Jul 14, 2006
Posts: 723
Location: Calif*
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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With all the solar panel breakthroughs since 2005, we should be up to 10,000% efficiency by now.
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People first, then things, then dollars.
There will be enslavement, cannibalism, & zombie invasions. |
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ohanian
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Oct 17, 2004
Posts: 1143
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:05 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| Confirmed wrote: |
Americans will believe almost anything because it has always been cheap to believe. When there is no consequence for bad investment or lazy thinking then lazy thinking is not punished. |
I want to believe
Fox Mulder: Let's just say that I want to believe |
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joe1347
Heavy Crude
Joined: Sep 05, 2005
Posts: 153
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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Hey, at least the article didn't mention nanotechnology (nanobaloney) half a dozen times.
Can't these hypsters at least make one solar panel (module) that's been independently verified at NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) before getting the free press.
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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." Homer Simpson |
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ThunderChunky
Tar Sands
Joined: Dec 09, 2005
Posts: 79
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| Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| Where have you people been? Solar has been steadily increasing in efficiency (decreasing in cost per watt) for a while now. I don't expect much to happen until it can beat the grid in cost per watt, but that day is soon coming. |
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Nickel
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Jun 26, 2007
Posts: 1438
Location: The Canada of America
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| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:49 am Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| Confirmed wrote: | | Americans will believe almost anything because it has always been cheap to believe. When there is no consequence for bad investment or lazy thinking then lazy thinking is not punished. |
Actually, what Jean Drapeau said was, "Pessimism is a form of intellectual lazieness." In a case like this, it's demonstrably true. It's the optimists who are doing the grunt work to ameliorate, or maybe even find a solution to, the problem of diminishing oil reserves. It's the pessimists who are rolling around in the mud, trying to figure out how to guard their turnip patch from the guy beyond the wind break line of trees with a shotgun and the fact they can't stay awake 24/7. Okay, maybe we can't solve it, and maybe the world will fall apart... but until it does, for Christ's sake, we owe it to ourselves and posterity to TRY because if we don't, then it definitely WILL happen. Laziness in this case is sitting on your ass and waiting for the sky to fall.
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gnm
Expert
Joined: Jul 08, 2004
Posts: 2708
Location: plundering eco-villages
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| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:58 am Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| ThunderChunky wrote: | | Where have you people been? Solar has been steadily increasing in efficiency (decreasing in cost per watt) for a while now. I don't expect much to happen until it can beat the grid in cost per watt, but that day is soon coming. |
Where have I been? Using PV at my own home and carefully monitoring improvements and costs in the technology. Small gains have been made in efficiency and most of those for "satellite" type panels which are well beyond the reach of most people. Cost per watt has gone UP since 1998 or so as commodities costs are passed on to manufacture. Oh, the cost may eventually get close to grid but more likely it will be because grid power will increase dramatically as we scramble to burn every last scrap of coal and whiff of gas in the world...
Reminds me - whatever happened to Mr. solar balz who was on here blabbering how his super efficient PV tech was going to save the world?
-G 
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I Have and will continue to vote against ANY politician who supports the various bailouts. Curse you for selling out our future for status quo now! |
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WisJim
Expert
Joined: Jan 03, 2005
Posts: 1205
Location: western Wisconsin
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| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:31 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| If I had waited for solar to produce electricity as cheaply as the grid in first cost, I wouldn't have been using a PV system for over 25 years. It should last another 25, barring actual physical damage, such as a tree falling on the panels, and has paid for itself some years ago. My newer panels should last even longer, and pay for themselves several times over in their lifetime. |
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ThunderChunky
Tar Sands
Joined: Dec 09, 2005
Posts: 79
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| Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: Re: 20% to 50% boost in solar panel efficiency? |
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| gnm wrote: | | ThunderChunky wrote: | | Where have you people been? Solar has been steadily increasing in efficiency (decreasing in cost per watt) for a while now. I don't expect much to happen until it can beat the grid in cost per watt, but that day is soon coming. |
Where have I been? Using PV at my own home and carefully monitoring improvements and costs in the technology. Small gains have been made in efficiency and most of those for "satellite" type panels which are well beyond the reach of most people. Cost per watt has gone UP since 1998 or so as commodities costs are passed on to manufacture. Oh, the cost may eventually get close to grid but more likely it will be because grid power will increase dramatically as we scramble to burn every last scrap of coal and whiff of gas in the world...
Reminds me - whatever happened to Mr. solar balz who was on here blabbering how his super efficient PV tech was going to save the world?
-G |
The grid will of course continue to increase, but at the same time solar will be decreasing. Look at newer technologies like thin film... these are much cheaper than the panels you could buy in 1998. |
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