Solar so good for our house

Worth looking at, this: Solar so good for our house | Money | The GuardianHere's the pleasant surprise; "We, a family of four, have produced 92% of our electricity usage from the roof of a century-old terraced house in south-east London - laying to rest the idea that Britain is not sunny enough for solar power. It also disproves any suggestion this sort of technology only works in state-of-the-art, modern detached houses.
Not only will we not pay for any electricity, we should get a rebate of about £50 once a payment from the so-called renewables obligation (RO) scheme, which rewards microgeneration schemes with cash, is included."
This at rates which could see the initial sum repaid within about 15 years -depending on electricity prices. Of course this was a subsidised initial outlay. So as the writer says,

I received a 50% grant for the system from the government's low-carbon buildings programme - the total cost of buying and installing the panels was £17,000. Unfortunately, the government is so pathetic at supporting low-carbon technologies that it last year cut the maximum grant to £2,500 because the scheme was so popular. As a result, demand has collapsed to the extent that the small company that fitted my system has gone out of business.
That means your return on a system purchased now will be lower - little more than 3% for one like mine this year, rising to close on 4% when the RO payments increase next year. Still, 4% that is not taxable is comparable to a building society account that you do pay tax on.

And there is a really interesting reflection on use of electricity, which at first seems counter-intuitive, but as I think about my reactions I think this might be true for many.

You might think generating your own power would make you relaxed about leaving lights on or the TV on standby. But the contrary is true. It has woken us all up to the realities of energy use. The computer, TV, lights, everything, we now turn off at the wall when they are not in use. We have some of those remote control switches to turn off wall sockets that are hard to get to. In future when we go on holiday, we will empty the fridge and freezer and switch them off. The challenge now is to raise that 92% figure to 100%.

Thin-Film Solar

It's started appearing at last. Can't wait to see it at Maplins and the Natural Collection. "Thin-film solar technologies often use non-silicon semiconductor materials including copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) to create photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. Without the expensive and often sparse silicon, the cells are cheaper in terms of materials costs. The non-silicon materials can also be printed on flexible or light substances, which can create new applications for solar. But thin films, aren’t yet as efficient as silicon-based solar, and can remain pricey due to their high production costs."
FAQ: Thin-Film Solar � Earth2Tech:

Breakthrough in solar power in Wales

This looks like a potentially very significant breakthrough in the search for mass distributed solar power: "those behind the Welsh operation think they may have made a crucial breakthrough. Their solar cell works in a different way from most, and is not based on silicon - the expensive raw material for conventional solar cells. G24 Innovations (G24i), the company making the new cells, says it can produce and sell them for about a fifth of the price of silicon-based versions. At present, it makes only small-scale chargers for equipment such as mobile phones and MP3 players. But it says larger panels could follow - large enough to replace polluting fossil fuels by generating electricity for large buildings.... The new so-called Graetzel cells offered a simpler and potentially cheaper way to generate solar power."
David Adam on solar power in Wales | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited:

Just so you know

"A new analysis of data on the energy radiated from the sun over the last 25 years shows that solar activity has been decreasing, not increasing, during that time – which is exactly the same time as the Earth has been getting hotter, with ten of the last twelve years the hottest on record.
The idea that rising emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are being caused by rising temperatures from increased solar radiation – rather than the other way round – is now as dead in the water as Alistair Campbell’s literary pretensions."
The Great Global Warming Swindle (Jonathon Porritt):

New way to split water into H and O

Could be significant, because it would appear to be quick and scalable.

"We put these films in water and they promote some reactions that split water into hydrogen and oxygen," said Biswas. "We can use any oxide materials such as titanium dioxide, tungsten oxide and iron oxide in nanostructures sandwiched together that make very compact structures. The process is direct and takes only a few minutes to fabricate. More important, these processes can be scaled up to produce larger structures in a very cost effective manner in atmospheric pressure processes."

ScienceDaily: Solar Power Splits Water Into Hydrogen And Oxygen Using Unique Method

Technorati Tags: water, catalysis, solar, hydrogen