09-20-2008, 06:18 PM
Black Landlord wrote:
...the unfortunate reality is that the technology to harness the sun's energy is not up to the job-- the energy and resources needed to create solar panels result in a negligible payoff presently, to the point that solar power could barely even be called "clean".
That is not correct. Only if the energy payback exceeds 20 to 30 years (typical warranteed lifetime of a photovoltaic panel...actual lifetimes are much greater) can a photovoltaic technology be considered "nonrenewable". A decade ago the energy payback period for a photovoltaic panel was 10 years...a long time, but still very much on the plus side of the nonrenewable/renewable equation. The energy payback period for new crystalline panels is typically better than 3 years and for thin film panels it is typically less than 1 year.
...and this doesn't even consider the fact that there are other technologies (i.e. various solar thermal technologies) that are more efficient than photovoltaic.
This info can be gotten from many places. Here's one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltai...y_Invested