as a sideliner watching, i thought i would do some actual research.....lots of peeps say they have done their own research, but in my 20 years experience of the market this usually involves reading BBs and RNSs.
with a scientific background, i decided to search google for silicon,polycrystalline.
WOW......suppliers,how to make,theory,etc.
i shall over Christmas check out that which i consider pertinent to SOLA and then reconsider my position wrt being a buyer or seller.
at the end of the day the success depends to a great deal on unit costs/watt.
checking back my notes i took whilst at SELTEC ( Lewisham,London), i discovered an old exam question.
it asked (given certain data ), what is the amount of energy falling per mē on the earths surface per annum.
my calculation arrived at 1380W/mē
a website gives a " definitive " answer of 1323w/mē.......not bad .
the point surely is:
sunlight falls.
short of erecting huge mirrors to send this energy whence it came, the energy available ( at present consumption) is to all intents and purposes, infinite, but more importantly cannot have any effect on our planet than would have otherwise been the case.
absorbing it can have no effect on the earth, as it would have been absorbed anyway( less say 10% that would naturally be reflected ).
any power absorbed from weather phenomenon ( wind,tides etc)will have an effect, however small ( tidal power extraction will alter the earths rotation for instance).
on that basis i would come down on the side of solar energy being the energy of the fiture.