Solar power is a proven technology. It gets used by a handful of ardent techies, and die hard off the gridders. However, as of today, the best that can be said for most home solar installation is that it keeps a few lights on in the house. You can, of course buy the expensive an AC 'INVERTER' and run a few motorized appliances, but there it is, the inverters are very expensive and a maintenance issue.
If solar is to ever get into the main stream the appliance engineers must take a lesson from history. That is, When Edison first invented the dynamo it was D.C. (Direct Current). DC is more efficient than AC with less losses. Indeed, the only reason AC is needed is for transmision across long distances. Once you get to the load it is no longer required.
The interesting thing is that there are double wond mortors available today. That is, they can run on AC or DC. Its a matter of a selector switch.
Solar power is a DC source. If you make all the loads DC, then the system becomes much more efficient and less expensive to own and operate.
A simple summary would be, bring AC to the house, convert it to DC, run the whole house instead of just the lights, start getting a real payback. There is more, of course, but the idea is there.
Oma Graves
Ortexgraves.com
Germany has long been a model for renewable energy production, obtaining more than one fourth of its electricity from clean energy sources including wind, solar, and biomass. But while wind has traditionally been the dominant producer of clean electricity in Europe’s largest economy, the often cloudy northern European climate would not seem particularly conducive to the production of significant amounts of solar power.
Yet as Germany’s second-largest source of clean energy, solar power jumped 50 percent in 2012 - from 4.1 to 6.2 percent of the country’s electricity production - to a total of 24.9 terrawatt-hours. The result keeps solar power behind wind production - claiming 8.6 percent of the country’s total electricity production this year - and ahead of biomass (with 5.8 percent of total production) and hydropower (3.8 percent).
Despite a few challenges - including a forthcoming tax aimed at paying for Germany’s move away from nuclear energy - Chancellor Angela Merkel said she remained committed to achieving the country’s goal of obtaining 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
If solar power can be a productive energy source in a country as far north as Germany, imagine how successful it could be if used widely in sunnier climes.
Photo: Flickr/Schwarzerkater
via [Earth Techling]
