There’s a new study from Brookhaven National Laboratory out that states many of the things I have been saying for years. Here’s the gist: For years I have heard people complain that solar is only 15% efficient so therefore it’s not practical as an energy source. This argument makes no sense to me since the source of energy (i.e. the sun) is free. Let’s say someone won’t give you $100 (100%) but they ARE willing to give you $15 dollars (15%), would you take it? Now say they are willing to give you this $15 a day for 30 years or more ($164,250) if you make an initial investment of approximately $16,425. Would you do it? Would you want your government to do it?
But solar is only 15% efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. I say “so what”. Internal Combustion Engines are also only 15-20% efficient and they make a terrible mess as well. Most of gasoline energy is wasted as heat. And, making the gasoline (drilling oil, pumping oil, transporting oil, and refining oil) is incredibly electricity intensive and also incredibly inefficient. Finally, when production and waste inefficiencies are considered solar would cut pollution and greenhouse gases by 90% if it replaced fossil fuels. If we start building solar panels with solar energy they become an even cleaner and obvious solution to global warming.
Here’s that study.
Posted by diympg 