4 ms·

It would certainly be nice to be able to hit the 10-year goal, but I think it's going to take longer than that. The thing I wonder about is how hard it will be

by ajdecon 18y ago

It would certainly be nice to be able to hit the 10-year goal, but I think it's going to take longer than that. The thing I wonder about is how hard it will be to scale up the manufacturing of the required components of such a system: PV cells, wind turbines, etc. I can't find any good numbers right now, but iirc a lot of the factories and material suppliers are oversubscribed as it is, with multiple-year waiting lists for parts like high-quality solar panels. Building more factories is of course possible, but will take a fair amount of time considering the processes necessary to produce components of the required quality.

peregrine 18y ago
I know of at least one factory going up in Wisconsin. And the possibility of another. I mean just in not so windy Wisconsin we've got a couple places with fields covered in these things. This exact time last year there were none. I don't know the power they put out but I know they exist.
dabeeeenster 18y ago
The problem is that solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements. If everyone in the Western World decided overnight to put solar panels on their roofs, we'd run out of those elements very quickly. It simply isn't possible with the current technology AFAIK. Wind Turbines are a different matter; they are relative simple machines from a commodities point of view.
- dabeeeenster 18y ago
  Having said that Nano Solar are quite interesting - not sure if they are reliant on obscure materials but they are a fascinating company - huge levels of investment in them too... http://www.nanosolar.com/ http://www.nanosolar.com/
- granular 18y ago
  > solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements I'm pretty sure the standard ones are just silicon (sand) plus trace amounts of commonly-available dopants. Nothing exotic. :) The problem of using only renewable energy sources is not a technical one.

by ajdecon 18y ago

peregrine 18y ago

I know of at least one factory going up in Wisconsin. And the possibility of another. I mean just in not so windy Wisconsin we've got a couple places with fields covered in these things. This exact time last year there were none. I don't know the power they put out but I know they exist.

dabeeeenster 18y ago

The problem is that solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements. If everyone in the Western World decided overnight to put solar panels on their roofs, we'd run out of those elements very quickly. It simply isn't possible with the current technology AFAIK. Wind Turbines are a different matter; they are relative simple machines from a commodities point of view.

dabeeeenster 18y ago
Having said that Nano Solar are quite interesting - not sure if they are reliant on obscure materials but they are a fascinating company - huge levels of investment in them too... http://www.nanosolar.com/ http://www.nanosolar.com/
granular 18y ago
> solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements I'm pretty sure the standard ones are just silicon (sand) plus trace amounts of commonly-available dopants. Nothing exotic. :) The problem of using only renewable energy sources is not a technical one.