Cheap solar cell technology

[Daniel]

You can't have too much, believe me you will find a way to use it. Like my dad for example, he got a pool, built an electric car and my mom cooks with a crock pot to save on propane. All sunshine and wind.

Daniel R Diamond

[JWFITZ]

All wind sunshine, and nitrogen trifloride.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environme...WP20081023

If a philosophy of small scale isn't a central part of the project, solar is more expensive and less ecologically benign than running a generator. I would encourage people to think clearly about the issue.

[gtill]

Not all solar cells are producers or users of nitro triflouride. Solar ovonics or Uni Solar, the type used by bullwinkle and hotkatz don't. They use a layering technique instead of laser slicing of the silicone. The first with that technique and the most reasonable of the upper end units.

Question for users of uni solar, do they seem to work on overcast days?

[Jeffhale]

In 2008, British firm ITM Power announced that they were building a home hydrogen fueling station that would be available by the end of the year. This H2 refueling station uses an inexpensive plastic membrane and electrolyzes water to produce the hydrogen. Through economies of scale the price of this unit could drop as low as $4,000.


http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/hydrogen-generator.htm

[Charles Moore]

If you disregard the extremely high costs of Hydrogen tech (car based fuel cells still over $100k) you are still left with hydrogens problem of having more stages of energy conversions and efficiencies that fall way short of what battery electric tech is capable of. One journalist famously said, "hydrogen is deader than disco".