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 For a while the
photovoltaic panel - electricity from the sun - was quite an
attractive cause for politicians. In the UK the EST would
give out grants usually for half the cost of an
installation. A good 1.4kWph installation might cost around
£9000 to install but the British Government then gave you
£4500 back in grant money - usually paid straight to the
installer who filled the forms in for you.
However, the sun
has temporarily set on the industry and the Government has
cooled its enthusiasm. EST Grants are now capped at £2500
per household in 2007 - and that is IF you can get them. The
scheme already suffered long delays in getting its monthly
funding from Government coffers leading to long waits for
many applicants.
Why the change?
No, it has nothing to with the lack of Sun - in fact we have
loads of Sun - more than enough to make Photovoltaics work
very nicely! (Potentially 30 TWh annually alone in the UK.) No, but it is an absurdly
expensive way to save carbon. It is bottom of the list after
bio-mass, wind-turbines, nuclear, carbon capture on coal
power stations, and so on. However, conventional economics
tend to tell only half the story. Indeed, Photovoltaics seem
very expensive in comparison to Fossil Fuels. However, Oil
prices do not include the cost of replacement technology nor
the potential cost of disposing of its waste products.
Unlike all the
alternatives Photovoltaics has one massive advantage.
Whereas few of us will ever own a wind-turbine or be able to
grow energy crops, practically EVERYONE can participate in
Solar Power. Expensive as they may be, you can bolt those
solar panels to any building and their capital cost is far
lower than the smallest Nuclear or Coal Power station.
Unlike Wind or
Wave Power you can cover a modern building with photovoltaic
panels and it will be cheaper than other expensive prestige
coverings. The Industry needs to achieve market penetration.
Mass production needs to decrease the cost. Photovoltaic
panels need to be produced in every shape and size. They
need to be direct substitutes for normal building coverings.
Such devices already exist - the "Solar Tile" has been on
the market for several years but suffers from
 being
1.8 times the cost and 5% LESS efficient than regular
'bolt-on' systems. Semi integrated systems are a good
compromise at 1.3 times the cost. Hybrid systems are now
available that combine Solar Electric with Solar Thermal -
electricity and hot water (picture left)! So there are
plenty of good ideas and new options appearing all the time.
It is also believed that, with the march of technology, the
cost of photovoltaic cells could rapidly fall. We hope so.
Take one case
study: When combined with Energy Saving Light bulbs a three
bedroom house in the south of England can go from consuming
over 4400 Units of electricity per year down to just 2500 (a
drop of 42%) after installation of 1.4kWph unit. The same
household earns over £70 a year from its exported
electricity. This is enough money to pay for another three
months worth of electricity. In essence this house now gets
7 months worth of free electricity every year. The per
person annual Carbon footprint of this house's occupants is
2.2 tonnes whereas the UK average is 5.4 tonnes.
You might never
make your money back, in our era of false economics, but it
will make a big difference. If every householder did it (or
the panels were simply built into every new home) then they
would quickly contribute 10% of our Power needs within the
United Kingdom. This is a very conservative estimate. You
could actually produce over 200 terra-watt hours (TWh) per year
just from the sunlight falling on rooftops in the UK. The UK
only needs 400 TWh per year! That is 50% just from rooftops.
That doesn't account for anything like the total available
landmass. So
much solar radiation reaches the ground that all of our
energy needs could be met many thousand times over with a
simple piece of technology with no moving parts. How
wonderful is that? |
