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The deterrent for going solar is often times the up front costs of installing solar panels on a house or a commercial building where it can take years to repay itself in energy savings. At the commercial level it is even more difficult to make solar a viable consideration because the costs of energy are typically passed on to the tenants.

A start up from Silicon Valley  has come up with a technology that would bring the cost of solar power down to be in competition with fossil fuels like coal fired electricity. Their innovation:  SUNRGI’s “concentrated photovoltaic” system, uses lenses to magnify the power of the sun 2000 times, letting it produce as much electricity as standard panels but with a far smaller system. They plan to start producing panels in 2009 that would put out electricity at a cost of 7c per kwh compared to the 20c-30c per kwh which is the standard for solar systems that are on the market today and is the reason why solar systems are not as popular as they could be. Everyone likes the idea of solar, no one likes the costs.  More info.

Another way of getting solar energy into the mix. In order to help commercial building owners take a serious look at going green, there are companies that have come up with a way to finance these energy-saving improvements. What they do is contract with building owners to provide energy at a fixed cost for 10 years. Once they have a contract they invest the capital in the building for the energy-saving improvements. Of course these companies are in it to make a profit and make their money by creating a space between what the owner pays for the energy and what they pay the utility companies. But most importantly they provide a way for commercial building owners to go green, which is something that was not attainable for them otherwise. I read about this in Entrepreneur Mag and they mentioned Transcend Equity Develepement Corp as providing this service.

Another innovation I came across is Solar Panel Paint, yep you heard right. Researchers at Swansea University in the UK and at the University of Toronto are developing a new, eco-friendly technology that could foreseeable make every rooftop an electricity generating machine, for that matter any surface the sun shines on. They have come up with a way to use materials other than conventional solar cells that are more efficient at collecting low light radiation. They are developing an efficient solar cell system that can be applied to steel building products through the use of paint. Imagine being able to paint on your electricity… More info… Even More Info…

September 17th, 2008 at 12:54 pm by bibi in Alternative Energy, Conservation, Living Green, Solar

bibi