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I Thought Solar Power was Expensive and Complicated

A few years ago, I started looking into solar energy. Just like you, I started with an online search exploring on how I could save money with solar electricity. I was shocked to see how much it cost to have solar panels installed at my house! The estimate I received was over $35,000 and the payback time for that was just way too long. I certainly didn’t have that kind of money, not even close. I was resigned to the idea of paying the electric company each and every month until I met a friend who had a solution. My friend explained that he was building his own solar panels for just a fraction of the cost of new retail solar panels. And he wasn’t alone.

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Every day energy from the sun travels to Earth in the form of electromagnetic radiation, kind of like radio waves but on a different frequency. After it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, where some of that radiation is absorbed, on a clear day there is typically 1000 W/m2 available on our surface. That may sound confusing because it seems like an immeasurable thing, but usually the amount of available solar power is expressed in units of energy per time per area unit, so how much solar energy is available to be converted into electricity on a meter of surface every minute, hour, etc. This amount obviously will differ depending on where on Earth you are. For example, you’re definitely not going to get as much power at the South Pole as you would near the equator, and not all of the solar energy that hits our surface can be converted to electricity.

Japan's Sharp Corp., the world's biggest maker of solar cells, expects the cost of generating solar power to halve by 2010. "By the year 2010 we'll be able to halve generation costs," Katsuhiko Machida said in an interview on Thursday. The solar industry in general expects the cost of producing solar power to fall by about 5 per cent per year, on average. Machida said he expected that a shortage of solar-grade silicon, the raw material from which solar panels that harness the sun's energy are made, would ease by 2008 as silicon makers step up production to catch up with soaring demand.

At yesterday's Board meeting the Supes passed some solar energy contract that leases land to a company to build solar panels and sell sunshine back to us. Or something. I haven't written about this issue because more astute writers all over town like Rebecca Bowe, Bruce Brugmann, Julian Davis, Marisa Lagos, Chris Rogers, John Upton, and Benjamin Wachs have already covered it.
No, today I write to describe to you how all this went down at the Board yesterday. Most major changes to the legislation were rejected, but the process itself was very amusing.

Japanese scientists have taken a standard gas-powered car (the legendary Mazda MX-5 in this case) and converted it to rely purely on solar power to run. This was made possible by the Total Mobility Project, as the team removed the MX-5's engine and gas tank in lieu of an electric motor and battery. Seven solar panels were also installed across the hood of the car, and this setup enabled the vehicle to run at a top speed of 100km/h with a maximum range of 30km. Conversion will hit your pocket hard though, as the entire process will cost $21,000 but for drivers who run an average of 60km a day can save up to $8,400 across the time span of five years. Guess it will take a good 15 years or so before you can start counting your ROI, which by then the car would've probably be sent to the junkyard.

And that allowed me to know that this is something I wanted to do. And then I jumped into it with a strategy I call “Surround the Space” You’ll see that right there in the center is my customer. And then my strategy, slowly, is what do I do to become this person’s vendor.And that allowed me to know that this is something I wanted to do. And then I jumped into it with a strategy I call “Surround the Space” You’ll see that right there in the center is my customer. And then my strategy, slowly, is what do I do to become this person’s vendor.