PV Gap

Wendy Said:

what do you think of this?

We Answered:

I like it! I like the fact that the story gives grabs the readers attention since the first word "March 24", besides I also liked how you used a lot of details in your paper. (lot's of detail enriches your paper and makes the reader feel like they are in the story)

I would have loved to see the ending but I guess yahoo answer cut you off, but that's okay.

P.S. I liked how you used a conversation quote at the last 2nd paragraph, if you can try to include some more.

Besides that great story!

P.S. I can't believe you're 14 and wrote this magnificent piece. =)

Deborah Said:

give minutest detaild sketch to build a powergenerater to draw water from deepwell to irrigation.and for home?

We Answered:

A simple combustion generator should work:
attach a petrol engine to a dynamo, and this will output electricity.

Alma Said:

What will be the cost of equipments to convert Solar energy to 1kva electricty?

We Answered:

follow these links for solar related products/panel
http://www.enolar.com/products.htm
http://www.apricus.com/index.htm

for consultation and installation
http://www.itpi.co.in/

Yolanda Said:

Is there an easy way out of the “OIL” mess we've gotten ourselves into?

We Answered:

Yeah, I read the op ed by that Victor Davis Hansen guy in the SF chronicle this morning (on the train as I commuted to work b/c gas is so expensive these days).

My answer is: No, there is no easy way out. Unfortunately, our global,national and even local economies runs on oil. We need to find a way to change our current automobile fleet into one that runs on something we can produce here, be that bio fuel, hydrogen, etc. That is way easier said than done though. Most experts agree there is no magic bullet, that is, there will have to be a comprehensive set of fuels which replace oil. Developing an infrastructure which sustains that for the transition between oil to this new set of fuels will be very challenging.

To the guy that said bio diesel, that is part of the solution maybe, but to switch the entire automobile/trucking fleet to a bio diesel standard would require too much crop acreage unless the internal combustion engine were made more thermodynamically efficient or replaced with something new.

Andy Said:

tell me about solar pannels for a average home user?

We Answered:

A standard home uses about 3 to 6 kw-hr per day. Depending on family size. On a full sunny day polycrystal solar cell can produce 1 kw / m^2 with the solar cells directly facing the sun. If the solar panals are fixed then it produces less. For a fixed solar panal on a clear day you can produce about 2 kw-hr of energy per m^2. You can find the optimum tilt angle based on your location on Earth at various solar company web sites. Therefore, the minimum number of solar panels is 20 meter square because the only produce about 0.2 w/m^2 at $615/m^2. That is going to cost you about $12500.00.

However you probably want to save some energy to batteries to have energy at night time. If you have the cash then I recommend NiMH because they have a larger capacity. If you want to go cheap then used lead-acid batteries. A standard car battary can hold 0.25 kw-hr. However, it is not a good idea to fully drain lead-acid batterias becaust that reduces their useful life time. Therefore, you will need 16 lead-acid batteries. They cost about $55 each so the total is $880.00.

Now you need a power converter from 12 DC to 120 AC. They are only about $220.00, plus a bunch of wire and switchs $200. The total cost is about $13300.00.

Kim Said:

Is the oil business really under threat from AGW legislation?

We Answered:

"Is the oil business really under threat from AGW legislation?"

Existentially? No. The oil business will go on as usual. However, Cap & Trade and other carbon taxes will make it more expensive to do business. Most, if not all, of those costs will eventually be paid by the consumer. The increased costs will affect all industries that use energy to produce goods and services. These energy taxes will retard economic growth in most sectors of the economy.

Anyone who takes home a paycheck will be adversely affected by carbon taxes... Even the people with green jobs (the folks at Home Depot selling Duct tape, caulking and insulation) will pay more taxes.

You can't make the more expensive sources of energy cheaper by making the cheapest energy sources more expensive. Raising the over-all cost of energy in order to incentivize "green energy" consumption will just destroy wealth.

"Cost of producing energy before subsidies, per megawatt hour"
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k247/d…

Solar: $160 to $420/MwH

Coal: $50 to $55/MwH

In 2009, US utilities generated 1,764,486,000 MwH of electricity from coal. At $50-$55/MwH, the total cost was between $88 billion and $97 billion.

If that same 1,764,486,000 MwH of electricity was generated by solar power, at $160-$420/MwH, the total cost would have been between $282 billion and $741 billion. Even if the gov't subsidizes "green energy" to make it cheaper, consumers still pay the full cost. They just pay the gov't tax dollars so that the gov't can subsidize the alternatives.

Solar-generated electricity "costs" 3 to 8 times as much as coal-generated electricity. If our gov't was paying 3 to 8 times more than necessary for solar-generated electricity so that they could replace power plants that generated electricity for 12% to 34% of what the gov't was paying for solar... I think I'd send them a copy of Jefferson's "Tree of Liberty" letter and "tell them I'm coming and Hell's coming with me!"

Which makes more sense?

Our gov't artificially increasing the cost of fossil fuels relative to renewables in an effort to entice the marketplace to actually deliver economically superior alternative energy sources.

Or...

Allowing the marketplace to operate as freely as possible; enabling alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuels in much the same way that the internal combustion engine replaced horses.