[clug] solar cells

[Peter Barker]

On Sun, 25 Apr 2010, keiths wrote:

> On Wednesday 21 April 2010 10:28:24 > Felix Karpfen commented : > My other
> complaint against solar-cell electricity (not previously voiced) > is that
> it is stunningly inefficient. How much energy is consumed in manufacturing
> solar cells? I once read somewhere that it is much the same as they produce
> in an average life. > the best (and cheapest) way to cut
> electricity-generated greenhouse > gas emissions is to reduce demand. -
> perhaps by curbing population growth? A possibility that even Kevin Rudd is
> now finding he has to face.

Eep!  Bit of a mess!

I think I can pull this statement out of that: "I once read somewhere that 
it is much the same as they produce in an average life".

That hasn't been true for 20 years.  Energy payback on modern panels is 
2-3 years: 
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CBAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrel.gov%2Fdocs%2Ffy04osti%2F35489.pdf&ei=ZsnTS5rPEZLq7APejOy9Dw&usg=AFQjCNGc1IeCKNVaNPJX2tVwnWiQmh9XZwhttp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CBAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrel.gov%2Fdocs%2Ffy04osti%2F35489.pdf&ei=ZsnTS5rPEZLq7APejOy9Dw&usg=AFQjCNGc1IeCKNVaNPJX2tVwnWiQmh9XZw

I think I can also pull out, "the best (and cheapest) way to cut
  electricity-generated greenhouse gas emissions is to reduce demand".

Well.... I'd suggest "reduce waste", rather than "reduce demand".  Energy 
put to good use is not wasted, and "cleaning up afterwards" may be better 
than reducing that energy consumption.  After all, we could reduce our 
electricity demand to *nothing* - but I don't think we want to live there.
We can now bicker about what "waste" means :-)

Yours,
-- 
Peter Barker                          |   Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek.
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au	      |   You need a bigger hammer.
:: It's a hack! Expect underscores! - Nigel Williams