Solar Power to One Up Its Dirty Brothers
February 20th 2007 16:29
One cheer for good common sense and one hard kick on oil corporations mighty fine rear ends.
In five years time solar power will be cheap enough to realistically compete with its dirty brothers and sisters even in Britain where it rains constantly.
But what is causing all this change? Kind of a rhetorical question, I’ll answer it anyway. Flisom is a new Swiss based upstart company that has developed a dark polymer foil thin as paper that can act as a solar panel. It is cheaper to produce, 200 times lighter, and consumes less natural resources than regular solar panels.
It can be mass produced relatively easily and comes in all styles and colours, it can fit anywhere. Being thin as paper you could have them manufactured in a certain colour and blended right into building walls.
Solar technology isn’t quite there yet, as of writing it costs approximately three to four dollars per watt output unlike the one dollar per watt output of carbon emitting power sources. In five years time it is predicted the cost per watt of solar technology will be 80 cents, cheaper than its dirtier counterpart. In ten years the cost of solar power may drop another 50 cents.
Imagine a clean energy producing world where you pay 70% less for electricity? I’m already sold.
So good is this technology that in a few more years if you were willing to have your mobile phone or laptop covered in the paper thin solar panel you would never have to recharge. Your mobile phone and laptop would have built in solar panels keeping them going for you.
Isolated areas can also benefit from this as the solar panels can act as on site power generators. Even third world countries could make use of this new cheap, light weight fabric.
Sadly, like all other great alternative fuels, politics will be getting in the way of this one. Oil companies will not accept it, conservatives will be humping ‘scientists’ to disprove its benefit and when all else fails, they’ll sanction the Swiss for inventing Swiss Cheese.
Countries such as Japan and Germany are very much open to the idea, other rapidly developing countries such as India and China should also express interest in the near future for this new technology to keep their fast developing industries light bulbs turned on.
In five years time solar power will be cheap enough to realistically compete with its dirty brothers and sisters even in Britain where it rains constantly.
But what is causing all this change? Kind of a rhetorical question, I’ll answer it anyway. Flisom is a new Swiss based upstart company that has developed a dark polymer foil thin as paper that can act as a solar panel. It is cheaper to produce, 200 times lighter, and consumes less natural resources than regular solar panels.
It can be mass produced relatively easily and comes in all styles and colours, it can fit anywhere. Being thin as paper you could have them manufactured in a certain colour and blended right into building walls.
Another Great Development in Alternative Energy
Solar technology isn’t quite there yet, as of writing it costs approximately three to four dollars per watt output unlike the one dollar per watt output of carbon emitting power sources. In five years time it is predicted the cost per watt of solar technology will be 80 cents, cheaper than its dirtier counterpart. In ten years the cost of solar power may drop another 50 cents.
Imagine a clean energy producing world where you pay 70% less for electricity? I’m already sold.
So good is this technology that in a few more years if you were willing to have your mobile phone or laptop covered in the paper thin solar panel you would never have to recharge. Your mobile phone and laptop would have built in solar panels keeping them going for you.
Isolated areas can also benefit from this as the solar panels can act as on site power generators. Even third world countries could make use of this new cheap, light weight fabric.
Sadly, like all other great alternative fuels, politics will be getting in the way of this one. Oil companies will not accept it, conservatives will be humping ‘scientists’ to disprove its benefit and when all else fails, they’ll sanction the Swiss for inventing Swiss Cheese.
Countries such as Japan and Germany are very much open to the idea, other rapidly developing countries such as India and China should also express interest in the near future for this new technology to keep their fast developing industries light bulbs turned on.
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Comment by Francis
Passionate Apathy
Still, as the cost of solar falls and the cost of oil rises, politics will eventually have to bow to economics.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
I doubt it will be corn though, unless they declare war on Sweden, Germany, Japan and any other alternative fuel adopting to country...
Heh, 'Indirect Fusion Energy', thats awesome.
Comment by Francis
Passionate Apathy
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
Good stuff.