Friday, September 23, 2011

Solar Energy Lecture

I attended a lecture on Solar Energy in EECS on North Campus.  The most important lesson learned from this lecture is the cost differences between solar cells (.9x) vs structure to support solar cells (2.5X), which often makes solar cells priced out of the market.

Reducing frame and structure - and/or - utilizing existing structure provides for substantial cost savings.

Also emphasized was "Conserve, Conserve, Conserve," which is the "lowest hanging fruit."  Using solar power not only means generating energy from sunlight but also minimizing energy usage.

The last point made was that "not matter what technology we choose - policy, behavior, and vested interest (greed0 are the real show stoppers.'  Using solar energy must be coupled with legislative and cultural changes.

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