If it were up to the sun, we would have no energy problem. Every half hour on the Earth’s surface, there is more than enough light to provide energy needs for the whole world in a year. We don’t have an energy problem, we have a conversion problem. If we are able to harvest sunlight in smart way, then we can prevent a global energy crisis.
That sounds nice but that does not mean it will succeed, at least that is what many different bodies want us to believe. It’s too expensive, takes too much space, too much material, it costs more energy than it brings, and it is still not efficient enough. While all these doubts play a role for solar energy in the distant future, it is still a marginal player in the global energy game.
Back-light takes the edge off these myths and shows that a solar economy is much closer than we think. Next year, there are already rolling Giga Watts of solar cells on the conveyor belt. The industry has mastered the technology and the machines.
Radical German government measures have proved that it is possible. Villagers have completely installed solar power on empty lands. Power stations contribute to the network and where they are deserved. Many countries follow the German example: The Americans have their Grand Solar Plan and the French President Sarkozy is talking about a solar plan with the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. According to the Spanish electricity producers, oil companies will be left out. So what energy crisis? The sun is coming!
Replacing fossil fuels by 2011. LMAO!
That’s not what was said. Your comment is false. What was said was that solar pv would reach cost parity with fossil fuels by 2011. Get it right!
The love of money is the root of all evil. This has always been the prime mover in all human history concerning what gets built.Any who seek power and authority in a culture, do it to make money, with few exceptions. This has not changed, and this dire reality needs to b reckoned with. The stone the builders rejected is the Royal Law, and their own humanity, to make a buck. God gives the free energy, but the builders won’t build it, unless they get rich. Al Gore is a poster child for such dishonest, deceitful greed.
Why does documentary Heaven not indicate when the video was created? This one seems to have been produced in 2008 or 2009. So how has that gentleman’s prediction about ‘the next ten years’ ?
It seems as though the oil companies and our old ways of gathering energy is really what is hindering us from moving on, people who are use to one way of things going very well aren’t quite keen on change especially when it involves them losing major business. The Rockafellas should be smart about this embrace it and start their own solar energy company. That would be a wise decision as they would once again gain complete control of the futures energy supply.
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hi everyone i just thought i should point out a few things they kinda hazed over. PV cells are great as a complementary electrical generator but they sadly lack the power-density required make them a reliable source; large spaces, huge investments for not all that much power.
the going rate to generate electrical power is (england) about £50/MWh (oh but the sell it to me and you for a whole lot more) and the current PV costs 1$/watt right now, if you quickly do the maths you will see it would take 75 years (i know this doesn’t take into account the rising prices or subsadies) to get back your initial investment of ( wait for it……) $10,000 million for the PV alone to power england (disregarding the infrastructure) a power company shudders to spend 200milion on a known technology, economical it’s not possible and no gov subsidies will be able to cover that much.
oh one last thing the vid never showed you was how long does a PV Cell last before it dies?
ans: there’s a lot of research right now in to that and so far they think 90% will not last more than 30 years. kinda puts the nail in the coffin for large commercial generation, however as i said before its a good way for you and i to reduce electrical bill on a household but thats as far as it will go i suspect.
oh and to answer the person who said put it in hydrogen, its less that 20% efficient to do so at Room temp. and before you say just heat it up at 900K the sulphur cycle is 45% eff
$10,000million sound like a nice research budget toward fusion dont you think??
Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!!! There are so many of us in the US that are hungry for Germany’s type of energy revolution and we’re so tired of the rhetoric that it’s somewhere off in some distant, magical future. Thank you for documenting what’s happening *now*. Will share widely and hopefully gain some support to push our lawmakers into joining the modern world.
Great doco but I doubt solar will be the silver bullet for the energy crisis on its own. Other forms of renewable energy in conjunction with solar will also be needed to resolve the crisis.
convert it to hydrogen !!! Africa alone could fuel the entire world with hydrogen!!!
any pretenstious Idea’s of using Africa as some sort of Solar harvesting farm are beyond refutable. Africa is a nation enslaved by other nations time and time again lets not trend what can’t be reversed.
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If we could only convince U.S. politicians to stop accepting bribes from the oil and weapons corporations, we could use the untold billions they now spend on militarism to solve the energy problem here at home.
The cost of invading and occupying oil-producing countries (sold to naive Americans as a “war on terror”) is bankrupting us.
Make some noise about this!!!
Next time I’ll finish the video before pontificating…
Anyway, solar panels in clothing is another option:
http://www.afrigadget.com/2009/08/26/hacking-the-flap-bag/
I don’t see the long term utility of “solar farms”, that just replaces one concentration of power (AKA monopoly or cartel) with another. Cartels can be very efficient but they trade robustness for efficiency; we need solar panels and wind generators on every building can be self-contained with a power grid to provide load balancing.