Break thru in SOLAR ENERGY

[Serpo]

Well hope so anyway.........


http://www.techniquesolar.com.au/technology

[Gknowmx]

Sorry, I have no idea what this means.

[nunaem]

The modules can be supplied and installed at a cost which does not require the need for Government subsidies or rebates.

Technology can become cheaper without government intervention? Fascinating. It's almost as if the free market has some sort of mechanism for reducing costs. :o

[Serpo]

Yea ,screw the gov before they screw us..........over here in OZ the gov is trying to charge pensioners for any solar power they generate and get paid for as income which would then be deducted off their pension.

[Serpo]

Sorry, I have no idea what this means.


What they are saying is they will be able to supply solar at 1/3 to 1/4 of current costs................thats all you need to understand.....

[Serpo]

Cheap solar on the way

MELBOURNE scientists have achieved a world-first breakthrough in solar power technology that promises to revolutionise renewable energy and put Melbourne at the heart of the $30 billion global industry.

Former RMIT Professor Ian Bates and his team have developed solar panels four times more efficient and three times cheaper than available models.

The technology could also ease the rising electricity costs Victorians face. The roll-out plan involves having power companies install the panels on customers' roofs under deals which would lock in fixed power costs for 15 years.

Professor Bates and his team have created a Melbourne-based company called Technique Solar to commercially produce the technology, originally developed at RMIT.

The firm is fielding inquiries from the burgeoning solar markets of India and China and is negotiating a deal to manufacture prototypes in the US with car parts giant Magna Cosma International.


The new panels work by using special acrylic lenses to concentrate the sun's rays on photovoltaic cells while the panel moves to track the sun's movement across the sky.

"What we've got here is a device which provides both electricity and heat energy. We've been able to cut back the number of photovoltaic cells (PVs) required by about 75 per cent," said Technique Solar director Dan Taylor.

Mr Taylor said the panels could produce 1000 watts of power at "a-third-to-a-quarter" the cost of current technology.

The company says the panels will deliver an energy output which has an average cost per kilowatt hour nominally competitive with 20 cents per kW-h for energy now delivered by the Australian electricity grid - and compares with the existing cost of energy from conventional panels, which is typically in the range of 70 to 100 cents per kW-h.

It enables solar energy to be provided to the consumer using modules supplying heat load (hot water) and electrical energy at one quarter of the energy costs of conventional solar energy systems.

The modules can be supplied and installed at a cost which does not require Government subsidies or rebates.

Technique Solar is an unlisted public company with 100 shareholders described as "mums and dads and small corporates". Mr Taylor said the company planned to make Magna Cosma, which has 250 factories in 50 countries, the global manufacturer of the panels, under licence.


http://www.techniquesolar.com.au/extras/mckinsey_solar.pdf


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/cheap-solar-on-the-way/story-e6frf7kx-1225840408871

[Korbin Dallas]

I tinkered with some old solar cells a while back, trying to find a way to get more power from the same area of panels. I never had the time nor engineering background to proceed, but I'm glad to see it's happening down under. Thanks for the update!

[Workaholic]

Sorry, I have no idea what this means.


It means load up on AG now, while you still can....

[Ironfield]

I think it is brilliant that they’ve managed to have a technological breakthrough in the field of solar power, as I think solar power has a great propensity with the right advances to help people provide enough energy for themselves at an affordable cost.

It’s a pity thought that Technique Solar has gone down the avenue of only rolling out the product to its own customers, via its new company and not produces off the shelf units for Joe public to purchase for his own energy needs.

Another solar product that I believe has great merit for rural communities and maybe more urban devolpemrnts is the stirling solar engine. How it works (http://www.stirlingenergy.com/how-it-works.htm)

-Ironfield

[Glass]

looks like BP backed company. I remember a system called solar ball. It was also a concentrating system. It used a half sphere to focus the rays onto a high performance photovoltaic cell. That became a product called suncube.

[Neuro]

The modules can be supplied and installed at a cost which does not require the need for Government subsidies or rebates.

Technology can become cheaper without government intervention? Fascinating. It's almost as if the free market has some sort of mechanism for reducing costs. :o

Nunaem is going to Obama summercamp for re-education! But you earned an applaud from me! :)

[jaybone]

Now if somebody comes up with superior and affordable battery tech, we can all have our own personal power plants.
I have a very small solar setup at home, and the bottleneck in terms of capacity and price are the batteries.
I have it specifically for outages, so a grid-tie would not be much good to me.

I envision a cube the size of a desktop PC that would run a typical household for 2-3 days without any input energy, and cost about $3K.