Jim's Comments

We want to encourage manufactures to locate in the USA. A few have already folded so this is late but welcome. Evergreen solar was one of the best in the world and US located with string ribbon panels. Too bad this wasn't in time for them.

Sunpower is the best in the world with HQ in California but panels made in the Philippines. Don't cut them off until you give them time to locate in the USA for manufacturing. It's the cheap China panels we have to stop.

Kev I viewed your concept page and it's trying to say H2 hydrogen is an answer. It's just an energy carrier making most H2 today is from fossil fuel and takes 4 times as much energy at 100 time the cost of using electric direct and having lithium batteries for storage. Vehicles sit 20+ hiours a day and V2G-101.com can use that storage for more renewables and regulation of the GRID.

Phil, Great point on the SREC's . I think all solar jobs should stop taking the few cents from SRP and APS in AZ and get the SREC market going. That incentives actually comes from us as rate payers to begin with and utilities should have never been taking tham like the AZCC set up in the past. It's time to stop.

I also have solar PV 4Kw and Solar hot water, 4 solar ovens and solar tube lights for daytime. I run my home and 100% electric LEAF and the utiltiy still owe's me at the end of this year 1,200 kwh !

We should learn to work with the Utiltiy. Some think they are gready, they think you are energy hogs using most at the Peak Time of day. We have to help each other.

In California they made rules that let the utiltiy save part of the money if they did things that helped us reduce use. They had Net-Metering before most states and lead in solar PV and solat hot water systems. Usrs have also not used more energy while the rest of the country has almost doubles their use by person.


Let's find ways that we save and the utuiltiy saves. Better rules and becoming aware of the real expenses can save us all a lot of money and maybe save the world !

These are hard adjustments to the falling cost of PV panels and fast growth. It needs to be done slowly. A percentage does that automatically.

Hey I wonder why this hasn't been done on the big subsidies Nuclear and OIL still get. That would make Solar look even better while adjustments are made.

Nuclear Education= 90% of the uranium used in the 104 nuclear plants in the USA is imported from foreign countries.

Nuclear plants have to be shut down and refueled every 18 months.

All the waste is stored on site with no long term solution in site. Most locations were running out of room so they requested and got permission to build more on site storage.

Not a single nuclear plant is built that can pay for itself. The governments has to loan the money and insure the plant.

Nuclear is the most expensive power ever made and the final cost is not yet done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining

Back to the real issue.

Can solar panels be made that are 45% efficient AND still not heat up and crack to keep a 25 year warranty like todays great panels?

Can their cost be at $1-2 a watt like many of todays panels ?

We already have great panels that are very reliable, we need more efficient homes and appliances like the LED lights and PC displays I use. My home has 4 Kw, less than half my roof area and makes more that I use to run my home and 100% electric LEAF vehicle.


Energy storage is also an issue sine fossil fuel and nuclear and even hydro make energy at night Off Peak we could store and use days. V2G-101.com can provide that storage at very low cost.

FIT Feed In Tarrif that pays more than you are charged for a kWh makes this a real smart idea. Using your EV battery for the back up makes it a bigger payback. Using V2G-101.com , Vehicle To GRID you can get paid to help regulate the GRID with short bursts of power in and out of the GRID. It tickles your batteries and you get paid.
The batteries can also supply back up if needed. A relay would automatically cut off the GRID if their power failed just like it can on any battery back up GRID Tied Solar system.

Arizona has First Solar and Sunteck, along with the most sun of anyplace on earth. We will prosper even against subsidied fossil fuel and Chinese PV.

Now if we can just get to keep our SRECs and get Feed In Tarrif since solar is clean and during the Peak Time of day.

CPV has always been great. The new Sunpower C7 system sounds like the perfect balance of not too little or too much. This should make the output last for a long time and be reliable. Sunpower has already been a leader in top efficiency in PV for many years.

I don't see any progress on cutting the Subsidies ! Congress fails to stop anything except the Solar subsidies that they seem to worry about.
We need to educate them to the dirty subsidies that have no end in sight. Nuclear is the biggest of all.

I would think AZ, NM and California would be lowest cost since they have the most Sun to make the most per KW installed. The Production should be part of the data.

Here in AZ the cost installed is about $4-5 a watt today. Then we have Federal incentives like all state plus a state incentive of $1K and local utiltiy incentives of about $1.20 a watt. We also have Net-Metering with 1 year roll over.
Other states have Feed In Tarrifs and REC or SREC credits. There is a lot to account for.

Then the type of local power and all of it's incentives like COAL, NG Hydro and Nuclear. They are hard to figure and now you have new pollution carbon taxes and mercury reduction limits coming out. I guess until they are set you can't show them as hard costs but it sure helps to know what they are and how big they are even after 30 years or more of being on the books.

Home power has a PV vs SUV chart that shows how much you save comparing the 2. homepower.com/article/?file=HP90_pg46_Smithson
FYI just in case
PV is Photo Voltaic electric panels, made in the USA of course
EV is electric vehicle, also made in the USA
SUV is Sport Utiltiy Vehicle

I also like to compare PV vs a Swimming Pool. The PV makes money while the Swimming Pools uses water, electric for pumps and chemicals.

With An EV and PV I call it Feed In Transportation, where about $1 in an EV of electricity replace 2 gallons of gas $6.60 today at 25 mpg. Add in the Environmental factors and it's priceless.

If people really compare investments Solar PV is a big winner.

as OIL, gas,diesel prices rise so will stock in Tesla. When their new Model S Sedan is released in June and gas is $5 a gallon I want to own as much of their stock as I can.

The Energy Storage issue is big. The US Imports 50% of the OIL burned in 20% or less efficient vehicles every day. Power plants have excess energy Off Peak and can't ramp down or up so it's wasted. Solar and Wind could be stored for more use in the GRID.

V2G Vehicle to GRID it's not the total answer but adds a lot to the storage issue. Along with Solar PV, Wind, Geo-Thermal and hydro we should be able to run the world.
see V2G-101.com