PV Gap

Carlos Said:

where can I go to find the rightinfo about installing solar or wind power where I live? State/federal credits?

We Answered:

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live completely, 100% “off of the grid and are completely self sufficient”

The house is built utilizing natures natural elements, in the shape of an octagon with 8ft wide arch doors on every wall to catch every angle of wind (typical 4 sided homes have half the chance as one with 8 sides. A circle being the most efficient design). Woodburning stoves, solar chimney, solar AC, solar heating, solar water heating (pool and home), solar stove, solar power, wind power, hydrogen powered back up generator, hydrogen back up water heater, hydrogen stove, 2 hydrogen powered trucks, 1 EV (electric vehicle) and satellite internet.

There are no utility lines, no water lines, no roads, tv, cell service, etc. on our ranch. EVERYTHING needed is produced here. All electricity comes from 27 solar panels, 2 main wind gens and a back hydrogen generator if needed (typically we can last 9 days with all luxuries of sunless windless weather, hasn't happened yet). Water is caught and storaged from the rain. Hot water is made with solar batch water heaters with an on-demand hydrogen hot water heater as backup. Even our vehicles use alternative energy (2 hydrogen trucks, 1 EV electric vehicle converted). Because of this we have no bills, no debt and no mortgage.

The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their homes on solar power safely, reducing their monthly utility bills or even selling power back the the electrical companies. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com. Its pretty simple but if you have any problems feel free to contact me directly I can walk you threw the process.

Materials you will need
A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.
Two alligator clip leads.
A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used a small surplus meter with a needle.
An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won't work -- mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.
A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.
Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.
Tap water.
Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.
Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don't have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.
Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.
As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.
As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath.
The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.
When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.
After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.
As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off.
The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.
When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.
Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.
Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.
Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates -- you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.
now place in the sun with the magnefied on top.
The solar cell is a battery, even in the dark, and will usually show a few microamps of current.
That’s it it’s that simple. If you’d a more detailed process and some pics (ouldn’t put them here) it’s available along with some other DIY alternative energy projects at www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.


Dan Martin
Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:

www AGUA-LUNA com
Stop Global Warming!!!

Paula Said:

whats a good thesis statement for a research paper based on the title of Solar power, Wind power, and biomass.?

We Answered:

alternate energy, what are the variables in conclusion.

Hazel Said:

What role will solar power and wind power play in the year 2058?

We Answered:

Solar can give us a maximum of 1500 watts per square meter, at noon. This is if we could capture and convert 100% of this. It is impossible to get more than 1500 watts per square meter ( rounded to the nearest 100 ). That is the output of the sun. The sun IS powerful, but we are 93 million miles away from it, and that's pretty far. Today we can capture about 15% of that 1500w with affordable cells, and about 40% of that 1500w with million dollar cells. By 2058, I think the million dollar cells will come down in price to a few bucks, and we will be getting 40% or 600w per square meter of panels into our homes. I don't think it will ever get much better than that.

Wind has more hope. Wind blows at night too!
One large windmill today can make 3 million watts, and you only need 12-15 MPH winds.
I think we "could" get up to half of all our power from wind by the year 2058.

Angela Said:

Would replacing all our fossil-energy sources with solar and wind power be practical?

We Answered:

No, it is not possible nor practical.

Reasons:
1. Solar only gives you power during the day, if the sun is out. The more cloud cover you have the less solar production you get.
2. Snow cover on solar panels stops all solar production. Dust and dirt on your solar panels reduces production.
3. Wind energy from windmills/wind farms depends on weather patterns for good production.
4. Wind and solar energy production can not match the load for energy use.
5. At current costs and values, if you do NOT have a subsidy, wind and solar project have a 20 - 30 year simple payback. Life of those projects is often less than 20 - 30 years thus the life cycle cost is a negative, not a positive.

According to NASA, Dr. Hathaway, we could be headed into a new Dalton Minimum. that would mean global cooling not global warming. If you believe in AGW, then you might want to start lobbying for MORE CO2, not less.

EDIT:

Solar Panel Ratings approx 100 W per sq yd

2.5 Million Mega watts = 2.5 x 10^10 sq yd of solar panels

2.5 x 10^10 sq yd = 3,097,600 sq mi

Now you generally rate thee panels at 80% for production. Standard system design offset. So you need to divide that number by 0.8

Solar Panel area = 3,872,000 sq miles

To get a constant generation of 2,500,000 mega watts, you will need to make this area still alrger allowing for weather dust snow etc.

So you have an area approximately 2,000 miles by 2,000 miles. covered 100% by solar collection panels. This does not leave much room in the lower 48 for farms, forests, cities, homes, rivers, lakes...

My source? I design and install these systems.

Mattie Said:

Has anyone in New England used solar or wind power to power their house efficiently?

We Answered:

Check with www.popularmechancs.com and scroll for an article on wind and solar set up by a customer for his home in NH. I believe the article was printed in 2005.

Chad Said:

Are there rebates/incentives for solar/wind power in the Dallas/Fort Worth area?

We Answered:

I'm looking into wind power myself, and honestly, there are not many incentives other than the personal incentive to help out the environment and maybe save a little off of the monthly utility bill. Have you seen this page?

http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes…

You'll see that the only incentives in DFW are the same that are available to most of the state - property tax incentives. There are also net metering laws (for utility buy-back), and I imagine that Green Mountain Energy would be the most generous:
http://www.greenmountainenergy.com/texas…

Here's a couple of providers including one that actually manufactures their unique design here in the metroplex:
http://www.helioselectric.com/index.html
http://mag-wind.com/

Hope this helps!

Philip Said:

If liberals are all for wind and solar power, why have they blocked California for years?

We Answered:

because they probably have`nt got it set up for them to funnel money to themselves yet as they have set up the Cap & Trade.