Hi all. I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Blane and I hale from Raleigh,NC. My hobbies include ping pong, boating and photovoltaic solar energy which I studied at Washington University in St. Louis.

I have a NFR S2000 with a few mods. Nothing crazy.

I was curious if any of you have already installed solar energy panels on your homes? What do you think about them?

-Blane Steelbridge

 

Welcome to S2ki, honestly, I think solar energy is a great idea. It seems like the price needs to come down to make it a reasonable investment for the average person. I wonder how popular solar is in seattle. LOL

 

What's up Blane. I actually just came back from Germany and the firs thing i noticed there is that EVERYONE had solar panels. I mean petrol is so expensive there that you pretty much have to install some sort of solar paneling. It's a no brainer Blane, wave of the future.

 

I think it's an interesting idea and am glad to see the prices are coming down.

Where I live, wind is also a good option (we already have thousands of turbines spinning acress West Texas). We have plenty of wind and sunshine out here, so with those in combination you should be set.

 

I think one of the great barriers was broken when the solar leasing schemes came onto the market.

That said, it's great for houses, but until we can make solar a viable substitute for all the aspects of our Fordism-centric economy, we'll still have a long way to go.

 

Funny you should mention that. I actually started one of those companies a few years back. What I'm focusing now is selling fleet vehicles that consist of the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi MiEV vehicles, and building photovoltaic awnings on top of corporate parking garages to power all of these vehicles (as well as keep them cool!) Its great for corporations as the only incur the cost once with the purchase of the vehicle (most of which they write off) and then they don't face any ongoing fuel charges or increased electric utility charges due to all of these electric vehicles being connected.

 

I realize the potential of solar energy but I think its a bit naive to throw all our eggs in one basket and say "solar energy will allow us to be independent of foreign oil". I don't doubt that it will tone down the volatile situation we have currently though.

 

It's clearly not a silver bullet, but it (in combination) is a start

 

I don't think it's naive. I think it will take time though. Most everything these days can be powered by electricity, it's replacing the current oil and gas based machinery that is the challenge, especially large machinery. Of course there will always be a need for lubricants and such but we create synthetic oil that doesn't come from crude oil wells so that need may be eliminated fully one day as well. I'm not saying solar will be the only resource for power in the future, but definitely a large amount will come from that. Like mentioned before, solar, wind turbines and other alternative energy sources that generate energy from naturally occuring sources comprise the future of how we will power everything.

Think, if you had 100 acres of land, whether or not you would ever need any utilities again. Power created by solar panels and wind turbines which would power your lights, air conditioning, heat, refridgerator, television, car, etc... A water system drawn from wells, with your hot water being heated by solar energy, waste in to septic systems, garbage being incinerated by natural gas. It's already a reality, it's the initial cost to set it all up is what is difficult, also the technology has yet to be made efficient enough at an affordable cost to do this with only a quarter acre of land and battery cells that can store the power to be used at night and extended sunless periods of time.

 

It will be a while until solar energy becomes a more efficient source of energy. Right now, there still are a lot of improvements needed. Another good source that produces a fair amount of energy compared to the cost is solar chimney, or updraft towers. Really cool concept indeed that could easily be implemented into modern house building.