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What if it costs more electricity to produce this glass than it will ever produce in its entire lifespan? Does it make sense to produce the glass if that's the
by jbob2000 7y ago
What if it costs more electricity to produce this glass than it will ever produce in its entire lifespan? Does it make sense to produce the glass if that's the case?
- Valgrim 7y agoThat depends. If the cost of production can be reduced with mass production, or the efficiency increased, so that it becomes energy positive, if the energy source required to make these windows is variable, for example by using any thermal energy source, or if it displaces the energy required to make normal windows, it's worth continuing to research in that direction.
- Tade0 7y agoUnlikely. Quantum dots are currently manufactured at scale and solar panels based on them reach decent efficiencies. That being said they can't beat regular crystalline silicon solar cells on cost. Their major advantage is that they can be made transparent and lend themselves for usage in multi-junction solar cells.
- yohannparis 7y agoIt depends if the glass was produced with low carbon emissions (Nuclear, renewables) and avoid final users to use less coal power plants.
- adrianN 7y agoThere are probably better ways of exporting energy than making glass.
- yohannparis 7y agoI agree, but like the Tesla roof tiles, you should buy those windows when you need to replace existing ones.
- blacksmith_tb 7y agoYes, though solar furnaces are possible. If we are talking about windows that would be manufactured with or without quantum dots, then likely the added energy needed for the quantum dots will still be recouped in their operating lifetime.
- robomartin 7y ago> What if it costs more electricity to produce this glass than it will ever produce in its entire lifespan? Fair question. This was precisely the problem with early solar cells. I think one has to take a multi-decade view on some of these things. If the science tells us we can improve the technology within a reasonable time horizon and achieve positive ROI, then it makes sense. Otherwise it is a bad idea. Side note: We don't want UV light inside buildings. If this kind of glass makes economic sense and it can filter out UV light while producing some electricity, it is a win-win. I believe nearly all glass used in large buildings has UV cut coatings/treatment. If the cost is comparable this could be a viable substitute. The problem, of course, is that this might not be viable as a retrofit but rather something you would include in new designs (you need a new electrical design for the building in order to connect all glass to the grid).
- husam212 7y agoNon-rechargable batteries costs more electricity than they'll ever produce in their lifespan, and producing them makes sense.
- jbob2000 7y agoThat's different. Those are used in places where having a cord to a power source is impossible or impractical, so we accept the trade-off. But if my assumption is true, you might burn a bunch of coal to make these windows, and then never offset that energy use (because the windows break/stop working after X years).
- beckingz 7y agoLocal generation is worth paying a premium for if it allows transmission infrastructure to be avoided.
- papreclip 7y agohalf of green tech can be thrown out under this kind of scrutiny. there are so many shell games to gobble tax money that ultimately originates in the great wealth fountain that is fossil fuels the blinders people put on talking about this stuff are incredible
- bittercynic 7y agoTrue, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the incentives are a bad thing. The incentives do promote activity in the "green tech" space, much of which is waste, or even fraud, but maybe some of it will turn out to be useful. It would be great if the structure of the incentives could be adjusted to reduce waste and fraud, but accepting that there will be some level of abuse may be the price of encouraging progress.
- ianai 7y agoGlass is very rarely replaced and is exposed to 100% of the sunlight that will be around during its installation life time - shaded or not. That’s going to add up to considerable energy regardless of input cost.
- jbob2000 7y agoGlass, sure, but what about these quantum dots? LED light bulbs were supposed to last 25 years, but everyone I know that has these replaces them well under that time frame.
- the8472 7y agoThe LED bulbs often fail due to the driver electronics, not the LED parts themselves. At least with large PV installations the inverters are separate from the panels and can be replaced.
- jbob2000 7y agoExactly. That’s my point with these glass-quantum dot windows. Glass is fairly sturdy; are all the electronics?
- Dylan16807 7y agoThey're probably not getting superheated like a light bulb.
- root_axis 7y ago> everyone I know that has these replaces them well under that time frame. Survival bias. Nobody is thinking about the bulb they haven't had to change in 20 years.