Quote:
Originally Posted by wifi
Not to throw a damper, but bring some reality is a few facts, which I suspect will be instantly argued with, but none the less.
I will make the logical assumption that this will not include batteries, so this is a solar "assistance" to power generation during sunny daytime, otherwise we would need to include the cost of batteries. We can argue this later, if one wants to, but batteries have a low lifetime relative to the solar cells...
Solar cells have a lifetime of 20-30 years, estimates, because few of the modern day cells have been around that long. So, lets take the expanded guess of 30 years, that means every 30 years all the $5M cells will need to be replaced. Anyone want to guess the economy here ? It is great if the government will pay for it (cheers from the liberals today), but lets think of what this really means, feel good ?
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Actually, you didn't include facts, you simply estimated the cost of the panels, then suggested it was high. You didn't tell us how high, or compare it to other sources.
Solar may be a bit more expensive than gas today if we think only of our monthly electric bill. But there are plenty of benefits to solar that are also separate from our monthly bills--cleaner air, cleaner water, a cooler planet--just to name a few. Plus, thanks to economies of scale, every new solar installation brings future solar panel costs down further.
Three cheers for NHEC!