Free Heat From the Sun

Free heat from the sun is possible.  I have built it and I have seen it work since the fall of last year.  It's called a solar heater window box.  Put it in a window that is getting full sun and in less than an hour it is pumping out free heat with just the power of the sun and direct sunlight exposure.  120F or more of free heat.  These solar window boxes just don't heat up air but they have a built in system that heats up and holds the heat longer giving you additional heating when the sun starts to set.

Anyone can put a bunch of soda cans or beer cans into a box and call it a solar heater.  Go for it, try it.  The main problem with a soda can heater is the connections between all of the cans.  You can not guarantee that the seal is perfect and will last.

Free heat is possible with just a two foot by two foot window sized box that heats up the air inside your home and pumps out the free heated air from just the power of the sun for free.  All you pay for is the power to run a 3 watt fan.  Ergo free heat.  Check out Sun System Designs video and feel free to spread the word and let us know what you think.  You can find more info at sunsytemdesigns.com or visit them on facebook by searching for Sun System Designs.  Putting a like on the main page would be greatly appreciated.  Go solar, go green, and let your children and grand kids know that sometimes the energy you need to live does not have to come from fossil fuels.  It is right over their heads.

 

Papamoka

I really love the whole idea of starting a company based on technology that is totally new and very much needed in our world.  With the rising cost of home heating then every little source of heat is a saver to the family budget.

My little 2ftx2ft solar window heater box placed in a south facing window pushes out some amazing heat.  120F to 130F of free heat from inside the box with just the power of the sun heating it up.  The progammable fan system takes the air from inside your home and then pushes that solar heated air out into your home at 77 CFM.  Even if it keeps your energy guzzling furnace from turning on once it is saving you money.

Check out the video and feel free to like it on YouTube or find us on Facebook at Sun System Designs. 

Papamoka

Starting A Green Energy Company

I've decided to make the move and finally start my own Green Energy Company. I am obsessed with the idea of building solar hot air heaters. After months and months of research and experimentation I think that I can build a solar hot air heater that works beyond the expectations of most consumers and many commercial applications. It can and will save consumers and business owners a large share of the heating costs when the sun is shinning.

I'm thinking that the majority of my business will come from commercial green companies that work only during the day. Free heat is good for the bottom line during the winter months. Heating a manufacturing area or office space would be the ultimate goal of the solar hot air heater I have designed. It can pump out free heat from nine in the morning till almost three in the afternoon and the system can be expanded with duct work to heat multiple areas. My heat retention systems inside the unit will hold the heat when the sun is clouded over thus saving time for the reheating process. The average hot air duct on a gas forced air heater is around 160F give or take. My unit can meet that and beat it. The concept is new and unconventional but it works.

I'm starting this adventure knowing that every step is a learning opportunity and the benefits of doing it are not only mine but the environments as well. Every renewable energy source that can be used to offset a home budget or business budget is money available for other needs. Times are tough right now and if I can be of help with my garage designed solar hot air heater then I am more than glad to do so.

Check back soon to see when Papamoka is hiring solar hot air box builders and hiring heating and cooling installers. Building the economy on new green energy products is a new industry and I'm jumping at it. Wish me luck.

Papamoka

Bancroft School Solar Power

Changing the world and how power is used or understood starts with education of the next generation. In Worcester, MA the Bancroft School is taking the lead in New England by going mega solar powered. Installing and powering up enough solar panels to provide 25% of the schools electric energy needs.

You have to give proper respect to the community for grabbing the energy usage bull by the horns and showing the kids how their school can make a difference in the way energy is produced for a common good. Locally, and globally.

On October 8, 2010 at 1 p.m. the Bancroft School community, with local and state officials on hand, will converge at the McDonough Center to celebrate the installation of 462 high-efficiency solar panels at a special dedication ceremony.

The solar electric system will be the largest private installation within the City of Worcester, producing more than 117,000-kilowatt hours of electricity annually or approximately 25% of the building’s energy needs over an entire year.

“Bancroft leads by example in providing our students with the tools and knowledge to be conscientious citizens of the globe,” said Scott R. Reisinger, Head of Bancroft School. “We have a strong record of sustainability and I am proud to see our School join with the greater Worcester community in further expanding our clean energy reach.”

Worcester has already been named by the Commonwealth as one of the first green communities in Massachusetts. The solar electric system capacity is rated at 106.2 kW and will add to the City’s reputation as a stronghold of alternative energy-conscious organizations. - Bancroft School

Bancroft School joins Holy Name High with its wind turbine that can be seen for miles from many of the highways that pass through Worcester as the foundation for going green with energy generation. In both cases it is a huge push toward moving our entire society away from energy sources that burden progress in a world that has to find new and clean ways to feed its energy needs.

The real bonus here and now is the green jobs thanks to the people that helped make it all possible for the school to stand proud.

Future Solar Systems, LLC, of Millbury, MA which designed the solar electric system, coordinated the installation, secured investors, and provided a comprehensive curriculum for solar, wind and energy efficiency for faculty to incorporate into the science and math programs. The solar panels are made by Canadian Solar, with inverters made by Solectria Renewables of Lawrence, MA. The system was financed by a combination of Millbury Credit Union and private investment.

Bancroft School rocks in the green energy school directory. So do the folks working in the new green energy field.

Papamoka

Cape Wind or Cape Windless

What are people talking about when they mention the horrible view that the Cape Wind Associates project will have for Cape Cod residents? Could it be that the closest simulated view point from Cotuit, Massachusetts at 5.6 miles from shore is simply atrocious to some residents. What about the renewable energy benefits of 75% of the Cape’s electricity being supplied by the non stop winds off of Cape Cod and the proposed 130 wind turbines? Why is the Cape Wind project stalled even though at one point in time it had an 86% approval rating from Cape Cod residents?

The Cape Wind project has been in and out of the news as far as its progress or lack of progress goes. From all accounts this seems to be coming down to a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mega watt deity with none of the perks enjoyed by Greek Mythology gods and goddesses. Massachusetts may still be the bluest of the blue states but when it comes to wind power projects it reverts back to the fossil fueled industrial age of power generation where you grab some stuff that will burn and boil some water to make an electric engine go broom-broom.

Cape Wind which was first proposed in 2000 has been in the development phase since the Corps of Engineers issued its initial impact study in November of 2004 and the NIMBY arguments have been going back and forth since. The latest gripes or approvals are coming from Indian tribes on Cape Cod where some are complaining that the wind turbines will interfere with important cultural ceremonies based on the sun rise and others argue the exact opposite.

President Obama, who ran for President as a pro renewable energy candidate, recently sent his Secretary of the Interior to the Cape to weigh in on the decision to finally approve or deny the Cape Wind project.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who traveled to Nantucket Sound Feb. 2 with his team from the Interior Department on what he called a “fact finding mission,” gave no hint about which direction the administration is leaning toward. On the contrary, in discussing the pros and cons of the Cape Wind energy project, the secretary said he is as likely to approve the project as he is to deny it. - Indian Country Today

Hmmm? I have a strange feeling that this project with all the environmentally sound positive benefits will still be in the NIMBY mitigation phase in 2020, 2030, and 2050. The “he said, she said” banter regarding the Cape Wind Associates project will continue long after someone proposes a “clean” nuclear power plant, builds the nuclear power plant on Cape Cod, and that plant is shipping rail cars full of nuclear waste to Nevada to be buried for a million plus years.

At least the view from the beach won’t be interfered with. Cape residents should speak up loud and clear if they are a WIMBY (Wind In My Back Yard) or a "Go Nukes" proponent. I'm curious to see which view the folks on Cape Cod finally end up with for their electric energy needs.

Papamoka

New Thinking is Needed for New Challenges

Hello Papamoka Readers! I want to mention an incredibly worrisome article in the Seattle Times. It's about how ordinary electronics we all take for granted, like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs, are threatening to significantly increase energy consumption in the world over the next few decades. If new green sources of energy aren't perfected soon, it could mean a ticking time bomb for the world environment.

The Paris-based UN affiliated International Energy Agency estimates that new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, which - incredibly - is the equivalent of today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined. That is a phenomenal increase in the amount of energy required to maintain our modern civilization.

"The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year," the IEA said.

The IEA says the world will have to do more to regulate the energy consumption of electronic devices, or create new forms of green energy. There is no alternative if we intend to avoid dramatic global climate change.

If nothing changes, cascading man-made C02 levels could lead us to become a less habitable world. Scientists are very worried about our future, so we should be too.

Unfortunately, that task is difficult do the fact that electronics make up such a vast amount of the world economy. Governments and private enterprise will be resistant and slow to act. That fact alone puts our future at risk.

This is another good example of why modern governments must be progressive and proactive when it comes to issues that threaten the globe, like the need to find green energy sources. This is another reason why we need progressive politics, and leave the regressive, unscientific politics of the past behind us.

We need new thinking on every issue, whether it's health care, war, disease or climate change. It's critical that mankind harness green energy. Republicans need to understand that we have no alternative. There is no going back to the old ways. Mankind's future depends on our ability to evolve, change and adapt to these new challenges.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

State Workers to Feel the Economic Pain

Downsizing is all across the news reports, and all over America is talk about all of the fifty states having a hard time meeting their budget obligations. Governors are cutting corners where they can and still more cuts are needed. It’s the same scenario in privately run businesses as well. If the customer is cutting back and not visiting your business with paid orders then the only thing to do is cut back where you can save the most money the quickest way possible. Survival of the business aka state government service is the end objective.

That means layoffs and if the private sector is suffering that inevitable choice then the public works, government service, and government agencies must do the same. If taxes are not being paid into the state governments to keep up with the payroll of that state then they can’t pay out for services expected by its citizens. But is layoffs the only choice Governors have? I personally do not think so. Over at MSNBC courtesy of the Associated Press they have this thought on it…

Governors seek sacrifices from public workers
Money-saving measures include pay and benefit cuts, truncated workweeks

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Governors across the nation are seeking significant concessions from public employee unions in hopes of helping to balance their teetering budgets during the economic downturn.

From Maryland to California, Ohio to Hawaii, governors have asked or ordered state workers to accept furloughs, salary reductions, truncated workweeks or benefit cuts. They say the concessions are a better alternative to further job losses in the face of record-breaking unemployment.

Unions argue their members shouldn't be singled out and are even more vital in hard times — securing neighborhoods and prisons, educating children and providing social services to growing numbers of citizens. - MSNBC-AP

I’m personally a huge union workers supporter but I am also a realist that sees that the states can not be paying benefits and providing services when the money is just not their to do so. With the credit markets tightened to the point of a stranglehold on businesses, it isn’t like each state can go to the credit markets and float bonds till things pick up in the economy. Wall Street and the markets just do not work that way. States can also not rely on the federal government to support all of them with a total bailout till the point of if and when the economy starts to recover. That thought process is the way to total economic destruction far beyond the Great Depression of the early 1930’s.

Governors in all states need to look to the budgets they currently have and cut wherever is required. They must also negotiate with not just the unions that are the employees of the state but the suppliers of all items including benefits to the state first and foremost. If they have to combine bargaining power with adjacent states to gain far better rates, then so be it. It’s called demanding better terms from your suppliers. Be it health insurance, paper products, light bulbs, paper clips, or even new equipment for law enforcement. If you have ever known someone that has worked in the private sector in purchasing, its called getting the best terms and rates for your company and it is called competition. If one supplier isn’t willing to negotiate, you move on to another, and another till you get the price you need to maintain your business. Some people call it beating up your vendor but I like to call it the art of negotiation. Each participant knows the value of the deal and each person is looking to find the perfect price where both parties are happy. The purchaser is happy and the seller is happy. AKA, its business 101!

Each state in the union pays millions if not billions for gasoline and diesel per year for the fleets of vehicles they own, millions if not billions to heat or cool state run offices all across each state. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the energy suppliers need your base business to survive. Demand competitition from your current suppliers and then seek out alternative sources for the same products. Wind power, solar power, bio-fuels, and the list goes on.

There are still many investors in the market looking for state bonds that make sense. If a bond was floated from Massachusetts or any state just for the sake of paying salaries and maintaining a payroll the state itself could not maintain it would have little interest in the markets on Wall Street. If the same state came out with a bond based on putting 100,000 or 250,000 solar panels on state run offices that would save the state millions of dollars per month once installed that would never have to be paid to an energy utility for the next thirty plus years it would draw huge attention, and not just here in America on Wall Street, but around the world. The beauty of the “Purchasing Negotiation” is that you could demand that each unit purchased will not be paid for till it is installed and generating power. That should work out to a thirty to sixty day payment deal for the manufacturer if they take the initiative to hire qualified people and install each and every single unit on the state buildings. Something that they could and should take the initiative to outsource to mulitple companies across every single state. More jobs, more state tax income.

Those savings even with repayment of the bond could equal thousands of state jobs and services that are needed elsewhere. It is the initial investment that is needed and we have several Solar Power Panel manufacturers right here in the United States of America that could and would benefit with increasing the workforce to meet the demand of high tech jobs at good wages. Schott Solar of California has a manufacturing facility in Billerica, Ma and Evergreen Solar of Marlborough, MA has a facility in the former Fort Devens military base to name just two.

President Obama is on the right track with his renewable energy initiatives in the current bailout package and the states need to look at the thought processes behind renewable energy and apply the thought process in public buildings all over the nation. If solar panels on the roof are paying 10% to 30% of the energy needs then how many jobs does that save in the public sector? Same thought process goes to private businesses as well. Back in the mid 1980’s I worked in a wire and cable manufacturing facility, the building was about 300,000 square feet full of equipment that was all powered by the local electric utility. The monthly bill at the time for the power was over $30,000 dollars. Then you had to figure the cost to heat such a large facility by gas per month and the bill was even larger than the electric in the winter months.

Even with the current drop of the cost of oil, the largest bill for any business other than raw materials is the energy cost. Cut that cost down by going with multiple renewable energy systems and the probability that you never pay an electric bill or gas bill ever again is within reach! How many jobs is that bill paid to the electric or gas, oil, propane company worth every month to any business or a greater point, how much does that allow you to pass those savings onto your customer and get the business you could never touch before? Our economy is built on competition and innovation, we need to look at the innovations not just in the private sector but in each of our state governments.

Each of our states need to be creative budgetary wise and think long term when it comes to their energy needs. Payroll is not the biggest cost they have but it is the easiest to cut. Demand more long term economic thought process from your state Governor and Legislators!

Papamoka

Solar Farm in my Hometown

Central Mass is putting its feet firmly down in support of green energy. Worcester already has one huge wind turbine at Holy Name High School and another proposal for another wind turbine at College of the Holy Cross in the study phase, Worcester Envelope is also studying a wind turbine power option. Douglas is looking at a proposed mega wind farm on leased land from the state parks. And this list goes on and on in renewable energy projects across Worcester County.

Now a private company is looking at 150 acres in my hometown at Worcester Airport for a solar panel farm. Over at the Worcester Telegram they have this on it…

Friday, January 16, 2009
Company eyes land at airport for solar farm

Up to 150 acres may be used for production of electricity
By Martin Luttrell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mluttrell@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A solar energy company is in discussions with city officials and Massport to lease up to 150 acres at Worcester Regional Airport to build a solar farm that could produce 33.3 megawatts of power.

Ansar Energy LLC of Scituate is also negotiating with officials in Attleboro and Greenfield for solar power production there, officials in those communities said.

Assistant City Manager Julie A. Jacobson said the talks, which began in December, are preliminary, but the solar farm, if built according to the company’s plans, would be a $250 million investment.

Junaid Yasin, president of Ansar Energy, is out of the country and could not be reached for comment. - Worcester Telegram

Every single one of these projects is great to see when you think about how energy dependent we are on other nations for our electricity. Each one adding to the negative column the number of barrels of oil per year we import. If you happen to work in the construction industry, it means jobs down the road for qualified trades people too. Not to just build them initially but to maintain the systems as well for the long haul.

Mega Watt Kudo’s goes out to Mass Technology Collaborative!

Papamoka

Oil Price Tank Threatens Green Energy

One of the biggest factors for many industries and people to go with green energy was the high cost of oil. They went solar, they went with wind power, hydro, bio-fuels, hydrogen fleets, electric cars, and the green energy movement was born again. What happens now to that green energy drive when oil is once more affordable? Should it be abandoned or pursued more feverishly?

In my little corner of the world it was great to see one small Catholic high school put up a wind turbine on its campus from their pristine location on a high hill in our city. Seeing that turbine whip around and feed the school all of its electric energy needs is just amazing to behold. I would love to see the seven hills of Worcester, MA look like the Gray Goose about to take off. That would be a Howard Hughes reference to an aircraft that he proposed and the government prosecuted him over that it could never fly. It did fly and so will the green energy mentality.

America has been burned over the last few years with the speculation on oil and we frankly are late on getting on the green energy bandwagon. We never learned from the oil embargo of the 1970’s but we sure as hell will never forget the oil desecration of our financial system once the oil bubble burst.

Over at the Guardian and from Chris Goodall they have this amazing piece on "The Ten Big Energy Myths". I loved it! This is a must read article and you might find yourself amazed at the myths and what the truth actually is…

Myth 1: solar power is too expensive to be of much use
Myth 2: wind power is too unreliable
Myth 3: marine energy is a dead-end
Myth 4: nuclear power is cheaper than other low-carbon sources of electricity
Myth 5: electric cars are slow and ugly
Myth 6: biofuels are always destructive to the environment
Myth 7: climate change means we need more organic agriculture
Myth 8: zero carbon homes are the best way of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions from buildings
Myth 9: the most efficient power stations are big
Myth 10: all proposed solutions to climate change need to be hi-tech

Guardian.co.uk

I’m hoping that we in America will continue the fight for energy independence. We can not prosper as a people when any foreign entity controls our power needs. If we can not supply our nation with the energy we need to continue the fight that is right for human rights then we are dead in the water. If we as a people espouse to be the conscience of the world then we had better be able to feed the energy needs of that mind set. Otherwise, we need to start kissing the butt’s of some of the same folks that reaped the largest financial gains in history from the American people.

Keep up the fight for clean energy and chuck the bird at the people that told us we can not survive as a nation without the product they have to sell us. Thus dragging us collectively as a people into their political wars that have not made any sense for centuries.

Papamoka

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Politics

Deep in the south of America are huge stock piles of oil that our government has been pumping into enormous salt caverns since the days of Jimmy Carter. The oil that is pumped in is bought on the open market and kept in reserve for a reason. In times of national and world distress the American economy can not afford a blip in supply if the nations supplying that oil can not do so.

When it comes to tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) it is at the behest of the President. Something that the current occupant of the White House has failed to do with the run up of commodity pricing on the open markets for his own personal reasons that are known only to him. Some people would say that he has a grudge against American’s simply because he is not popular by even the closest margin of percentage points in the middle and lower classes. Thus he has not tapped the SPR to help American’s where it hurts, not just its people but its businesses that rely on all oil based products.

In to save the day (in her own mind) is House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Her idea of a temporary fix to save American consumers five cents plus at the pump is to stop filling the SPR and this is what Reuters has to say about it…

House speaker asks Bush to stop stockpiling oil
By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday called on the White House to temporarily stop sending crude oil into the nation's emergency stockpile.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she was calling on President George W. Bush to work with Democrats to find a way to "temporarily suspend" oil deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The White House immediately rejected the plea. "We don't believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
"We continue to fill the reserve to provide an added layer of protection to the American people in cases of severe supply disruption."

Pelosi said suspending deliveries would save drivers 5 cents to 24 cents per gallon at the pump.

As U.S. benchmark crude oil prices hit a record near $120 a barrel this week, the Bush administration insists that filling the reserve accounts for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of daily supply, and has no meaningful effect on prices.

The nearly 701 million barrels of crude oil stored in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas are meant as a supply buffer in case of major supply disruptions like the 2005 hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast oil patch. It was created by Congress in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo.

Current shipments come to about 70,000 barrels per day, while the United States uses about 21 million bpd. - Reuters

Stopping the filling of the SPR is a very bad idea that will never save a penny at the pump for consumers. The price on the open market for oil will continue to rise simply because the investment potential on the commodity market is driving billions of new money every single day into it. Kiss the nickel or quarter savings away within one weeks time. Supply is not the problem! Market manipulation is driving the price higher and higher and that will not end till the government really thinks about it.

Nancy Pelosi should have the guts to stand up and demand an investigation into the top thirty commodity brokers and open up their books under a federal investigation. What is that old saying about following the money? Does she have the guts to do it and follow it up with a knock out punch? I don’t think so. Neither does Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

Do you personally believe that the average American family in the middle and lower class has the billions of dollars that is flooding the markets to drive the price up? Where might that kind of free cash flow come from? Anyone other than me thinking that the oil companies with record profits in the tens of billions of dollars per quarter might want to make sure those CEO bonuses continue for the long term? What are these companies doing with all that cash while you forgo the better cuts of meat at the market? What are they doing with all that cash when you have to tell your kids that you have to cancel their after school program because the gas to get them back and forth to practice and games is just killing the family budget? What are they doing with all that cash when a tank full of gas is now approaching a days pay for someone at minimum wage?

Wait this story only gets better. How do you defend the future needs of your nations energy needs? You make it impossible for the SPR to ever pump another barrel of oil. Same article from Reuters…

Democrats in the Senate are also pursuing legislation that would require the Energy Department to suspend shipments to the reserve if prices are too high.

Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said he would seek to attach an amendment to an upcoming supplemental appropriations bill that would forbid the government from sending oil to the SPR if oil prices are above $75 a barrel.

"I believe I have the votes," Dorgan told reporters. "I think I'm going to be able to get this dome." - Reuters

Why not just put a bullet in my kids energy backup future Senator Dorgan. Why not just tell the Saudi’s and all the other oil producing nations that we give up? You win, feel free to rape and pillage our open market society and have your way with us, our children, and our grandchildren.

The SPR is there for a damn good reason and if the market is out of control then President Bush is obligated to intervene during this energy crisis built up by Wall Street. America’s economy only works if the workers at the bottom of it can get to work and the price of gasoline is slowly making that possibility not probable. Releasing one to two million barrels a month from the SPR till the market calms sends a message that tells the market that this is not something you want to heavily invest in. Secondly, if the President initiated full investigations into the oil commodity market it might just stop the endless run up of what basically will kill this economy and its peoples way of life goodbye.

That will not happen so maybe Senator Obama, Senator Clinton and Senator McCain should pay close attention to this topic. After all one of them will be sitting in the White House come January of 09 and this topic just might come up.

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com, Bring It ON! , and To the Center

Feel free to link to and borrow this post…

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Solar Power Research

Solar Power is going to be a big part of your future life whether you like it or not. With the cut throat politics of big oil, the future is going to be very different. America much like in the past will change the world with our direction. Not from some group in some far away lands demands, but on our own terms. American’s are a funny people, we will buy your product on our terms if it is affordable and reliable. That includes our energy needs. While the nice folks sitting on mega trillions of oil think that they have “We the People” over their barrel, creative Americans are turning those same barrels into wood stoves and home made bio-fuel tanks.

I love the New York Times and I have to thank my friend Jeff from Worm Town Taxi for turning me onto this story. The New York Times writer could not find his back side from his elbow on this topic. Rather than reporting on the true research they condemn solar power as a fad for this generation. Different paper, different generation but the same is true, Solar power is not good enough once more over at the NYT…

A link between Moore’s Law and solar technology reflects the engineering reality that computer chips and solar cells have a lot in common.

“A solar cell is just a big specialized chip, so everything we’ve learned about making chips applies,” says Paul Saffo, an associate engineering professor at Stanford and a longtime observer of Silicon Valley.

Financial opportunity also drives innovators to exploit the solar field. “This is the biggest market Silicon Valley has ever looked at,” says T. J. Rogers, the chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor, which is part-owner of the SunPower Corporation, a maker of solar cells in San Jose, Calif.

Mr. Rogers, who is also chairman of SunPower, says the global market for new energy sources will ultimately be larger than the computer chip market.

“For entrepreneurs, energy is going to be cool for the next 30 years,” he says.
Optimism about creating a “Solar Valley” in the geographic shadow of computing all-stars like Intel, Apple and Google is widespread among some solar evangelists.

“The solar industry today is like the late 1970s when mainframe computers dominated, and then Steve Jobs and I.B.M. came out with personal computers,” says R. Martin Roscheisen, the chief executive of Nanosolar, a solar company in San Jose, Calif.

Nanosolar shipped its first “thin film” solar panels in December, and the company says it ultimately wants to produce panels that are both more efficient in converting sunlight into electricity and less expensive than today’s versions. Dramatic improvements in computer chips over many years turned the PC and the cellphone into powerful, inexpensive appliances — and the foundation of giant industries. Solar enterprises are hoping for the same outcome. - New York Times

This is where the article should have ended but it didn’t. You can read the rest of it if you like but it is more or less if you can’t have the whole loaf of bread then you don’t want even one slice.

When it comes to our nations energy needs in the future you can no longer put all your eggs in one basket. You need to look at all options and Solar Power is just one option of many for your individual energy needs. There isn’t a person involved in the real life business of solar power that will tell you it will serve all of your energy resources. That kind of science and technology just doesn’t exist… YET! When you think of solar power you have to think of your vegetable garden, it offsets your grocery bill with food grown by your own hand that you know will help your family budget. It’s only the vegetables. As in the old commercials from long gone by political campaigns “Where’s the BEEF?”

The beef is in the current research that will mass produce the solar panels to the point where Joe and Joanne Sixpack can afford to install a solar panel on their home. That is where Moore’s Law meets the common consumer. That is where engineers and scientist break the back of OPEC and pretty much look at locations in the middle of the desert here in America with sunshine year round that are not in the Middle East for our nations electric power needs.

Solar Power was not a fad in the 70‘s, or the 80‘s, or for that matter in the 90‘s. It is and will be part of your life, it is only a question of what part it will be producing power for your families needs. Ten years from now you could probably pick up a whole house solar panel unit that you plug into your outdoor outlet that powers your entire home from Home Depot or Lowes. Then again Walmart might have those nasty falling prices and outsource the American designed technology to China to mass produce it. Any way you look at it, the technology will be cheaper and our nations energy needs will come from somewhere else and solar power is just one piece of the puzzle.

The only thing that will hold solar power back is the people most afraid of it and how much of their bottom line it will take away. Those are the people that this story in the NYT’s should have looked at more closely. That is when you will smell the sense of smoke in the air and new patents for new energy smoldering on the bonfires of big energy R us. Capitalism at its worst.

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring IT ON!

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