diy solar

diy solar

Solar Energy Windows in the Future?

Even better than replacing windows with them would to simply be allowed to install them at all, darn HOA ordinances regarding visibility.
 
Transparent solar panel windows have always had a bright future....and they always will. :unsure: ;)

Of course I'm saying that jokingly and I hope they do work but so far every solar window company in history has disappeared into the either with millions of dollars of DOE grants and venture capitalist's money.
 
Some look at the possible up side… some don’t.
Had to repair a horse drawn carriage lately?
Didn’t think so.
How about send a telegraph, or even use a landline for that matter.
Sometimes a concept in infancy has many struggles and failures, and being early often doesn’t pay longterm, or even short term.
But often someone new picks up and runs with new twists on an existing concept and makes it work, then someone else takes that improvement and makes a further improvement.
I’m really glad the developers of Lithium battery technologies didn’t just say well that's interesting but it’ll never work as well as lead acid does. I’m sure some did though.

Same with Tesla and other EV’s… they have shortcomings but they are stepping stones on a new path.

Time will tell if solar windows ever become an efficient and cost effective product, but I’m glad someone is at least trying.
 
It is a great invention worth investigating but not sure it might be ready as a solution:
Concern #1 is how much energy it costs to produce such glass.
Concern #2 is there enough indium tin oxide in the world to really achieve a significant input from this invention. What happens when the windows have to be replaced and there is no indium tin oxide left?
 
Jordi said:
It is a great invention worth investigating but not sure it might be ready as a solution:
Concern #1 is how much energy it costs to produce such glass.
Concern #2 is there enough indium tin oxide in the world to really achieve a significant input from this invention. What happens when the windows have to be replaced and there is no indium tin oxide left?
Click to expand...

Asteroid mining to the rescue! :p
 
The problem with solar power is not simply having more cheaper panels. It is the entire Ecosystem of panels, and the equipment it takes to utilize the electricity from the panels. Plus there is the big problem that the sun does not shine all the time. Panels could be free, plentiful and problems in the basics will still mean solar power is not a 100% answer to energy needs.
 
Mattb4 said:
The problem with solar power is not simply having more cheaper panels. It is the entire Ecosystem of panels, and the equipment it takes to utilize the electricity from the panels. Plus there is the big problem that the sun does not shine all the time. Panels could be free, plentiful and problems in the basics will still mean solar power is not a 100% answer to energy needs.
Click to expand...
It's always shining somewhere, we could have some absurd network of global powerlines distributing it around. If we are talking unrealistic pie in the sky crap. Clearly there are huge problems with that, such as people breaking the lines, nature breaking the lines, cost, absurdity, etc..

Energy storage is where we need improvements.. batteries and alternatives to them really need to come around. Thermal storage, gravity storage (water, or anything that comes down from height), safely made home hydrogen generators, something..

Easier would probably just be for everybody to have as many solar panels as their roof / parking lot size allows, a small grid connection, and some sort of small fuel based generator designed to recharge some batteries. With that kind of redundancy residential would be ok. It needs massive improvements in permitting / standardization though.

Large commercial players would still need large power plant capacity, as they are gigantic energy / water hogs. They often have very large parking lots and buildings, and could use solar for a huge portion of their electricity usage, but they certainly would not accept reduced ability to produce on non sunny days.. I can't even imagine the outrage of a factory having to wait until the sun came up to run. However, large commercia/industrial players would also likely have the space to maybe have thermal or gravity based energy storage on the premises, unlike smaller residential lots.
 
Rocksnsalt said:
Some look at the possible up side… some don’t.
Click to expand...

Anytime there's "investor" links on a company's website my sniff detector goes off, particularly when they don't have a product that anyone can actually buy in an "industry" with a track record of making promises they can't and have no intention to deliver on. There wasn't a dozen companies people bilking investors out of money for the telegraph before it was implemented. We had commercial electric cars BEFORE fossil fuel cars if I'm not mistaken.

I may be a curmudgeon it but I'm not a luddite. I can't help if it looks like just another vertical axis wind turbine that makes all sort of promises then disappears with investors money leaving behind a handful of early adopter with no one to support thier defunct installation.


1659315313927.png
 
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Mattb4 said:
The problem with solar power is not simply having more cheaper panels. It is the entire Ecosystem of panels, and the equipment it takes to utilize the electricity from the panels. Plus there is the big problem that the sun does not shine all the time. Panels could be free, plentiful and problems in the basics will still mean solar power is not a 100% answer to energy needs.
Click to expand...
cs1234 said:
It's always shining somewhere, we could have some absurd network of global powerlines distributing it around. If we are talking unrealistic pie in the sky crap. Clearly there are huge problems with that, such as people breaking the lines, nature breaking the lines, cost, absurdity, etc..

Energy storage is where we need improvements.. batteries and alternatives to them really need to come around. Thermal storage, gravity storage (water, or anything that comes down from height), safely made home hydrogen generators, something..

Easier would probably just be for everybody to have as many solar panels as their roof / parking lot size allows, a small grid connection, and some sort of small fuel based generator designed to recharge some batteries. With that kind of redundancy residential would be ok. It needs massive improvements in permitting / standardization though.

Large commercial players would still need large power plant capacity, as they are gigantic energy / water hogs. They often have very large parking lots and buildings, and could use solar for a huge portion of their electricity usage, but they certainly would not accept reduced ability to produce on non sunny days.. I can't even imagine the outrage of a factory having to wait until the sun came up to run. However, large commercia/industrial players would also likely have the space to maybe have thermal or gravity based energy storage on the premises, unlike smaller residential lots.
Click to expand...

There are a few matters related to these comments worth mentioning.
> Power factor of solar is standardly known as 3, but some scientists claim it could be very close to 1 when not used optimally. Power factor is the energy you harvest from the panel divided by the energy you put it to create the panel. This is partly because most calculation do not take the end of life into account; say recycling.
>The energy type required to create solar panels is another concern; electricity can't do everything yet. Say we have plenty of electricity but no oil, then as it happens nowadays, we can't produce solar panels.
> Solar panels use rare metals and critical materials; these aren't enough to produce enough solar for the whole world. Some of these materials actually cause heavy pollution at extraction, use and disposal.
> Lastly; we have implemented solar to solve a problem now but we have not figured out the whole cycle of solar yet. We'll have massive solar waste in 15-to 20 years. What will happen when we need the next generation of solar panels and we do not even know how to recycle the current ones? Hopefully by then we have enough solar to afford the energy it will cost the recycling process.
 
Yes, problems and challenges no doubt.
Yes the solar recycling challenges are already here, systems that were installed 10, 20 and 30 years ago are being replaced.
New technology has to start somewhere, and often creates new problems, which often creates new solutions and so on and so on.

Re indium tin oxide, maybe that’s just a starting point. Perhaps someone will figure out a different and plentiful substance that does the job and with more efficiency.


THINK
Have solar panels become more efficient over the decades?YES.
Are they using the same materials and techniques? NO.
IS it possible there may be future increases in efficiency? YES.
IS it possible there may be new materials used to achieve increased efficiencies? YES.

I say same with energy storage.
 
I have box of indium at home that came from an semiconductor plant, there does not seem to be secondary market for it.
 
cs1234 said:
There are dreamers and doubters, we need both or we will never get anywhere.
Click to expand...
A few doubters go a long way though…

“ I am looking for a lot of men that have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done”
- Henry Ford
 
Rocksnsalt said:
A few doubters go a long way though…

“ I am looking for a lot of men that have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done”
- Henry Ford
Click to expand...
I searched up that quote, and found this nice blog post.. seems appropriate here on this forum.

From the post:
Zen Buddhism has a concept called Shoshin which is best summarized by the following quote:


“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
The naive see opportunity where the experienced see a ponzi scheme. Time will tell.

I hope the experienced one in the above sentence is proven wrong. (aka me)
 
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OzSolar said:
The naive see opportunity where the experienced see a ponzi scheme. Time will tell.

I hope the experienced one in the above example is proven wrong.
Click to expand...
I was referring to solar in general, not the transparent window panels that started this thread, just to be clear. :)
 
cs1234 said:
I was referring to solar in general, not the transparent window panels that started this thread, just to be clear. :)
Click to expand...
Sorry about the confusion. I was only talking about me. I've edited my post in attempt to clarify.
 
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