Promotion of solar power generation is booming. After analyzing a few of these announcements one is left with quite a few questions. Why are solar farms built when financial data clearly show that solar power is still the most expensive electricity generation technology available?Solar power plant developers and marketers obviously know that they need to lower costs. Cost reduction is, however, expensive and takes time. Many new enterprises have been formed and want to become profitable when the big construction boom in solar power plants will hit the road. In the meantime they must pay bills, advance their technologies, and stay alive.There are two major technologies for solar energy conversion. One approach is based on the conversion of sunlight into heat and using the heat for the generation of steam. This concept has progressed to a relatively high readiness level. Electricity production with steam is a very mature technology. Remaining technical risks, therefore, relate exclusively to the design of the thermal concentrators or parabolic mirrors that optically transfer thermal radiation to a heat transfer medium and to the design of the heat receiving transfer and steam containment surfaces.The other technology is […]
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Providing fresh water is one of the most important aspects of attracting birds to your yard. Most bird species need water, not only to drink but to bathe in. If you provide flowing water you have the best avian magnet you can find because most birds can not resist the attraction of moving water. Birds will flock to a waterfall or stream or even a fountain much more readily than they will a still pond or bird bath.My wife and I built a pond and waterfall (what is known these days as a water feature) seven years ago and we love it. Our pond is about 12 feet in diameter and holds about 1000 gallons. In our pond we have several Shubunkin gold fish, many, many frogs and a multitude of water plants. As soon as we built the pond, I mean within days, we had frogs and birds and all kinds of creatures visiting us. The pond produced water skimmers, water bugs and literally hundreds of damselflies and dragonflies, as well as all the frogs, in very little time.There is one thing that I feel is important to mention here. Maintaining a healthy pond […]
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At USD$800 for a 170 watt solar panel many of us are scared at the cost of buying enough solar panels to power our home. Well, for a home that uses 3Kwh/day it’s around USD$14,000; however, we have a secret that can cut down that cost significantly. It happened by “accident” actually. (forgive the pun)
We were driving down Highway 401(Canada’s busiest divided highway) and noticed an accident ahead. The driver had crashed into one of those mobile signs which indicate to change lanes. The sign was completely ruined, but the panel which was ON TOP didn’t seem to be damaged. We called the company up the following Monday and the receptionist answered “Yes, the signs get hit all the time, and yes, we could probably have the cracked panels after the insurance company looked at them.”
BINGO
It turns out that this company installs 5- 65 watt solar panels on each unit. After getting the company approval we toted away 13 slightly damaged solar panels. After we got them home we tested the current on each of them. It turns out that only two of them were damaged beyond being usable. In total we picked up over 200 watts of panels for […]
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