Back to my posts on energy. This time it's not about the negatives of fossil fuels, instead it is time to see the alternatives. Lets begin with solar power.
Solar power might just be the most slap in the face "well duh" power that we have. You think that we would have harnessed Earth's most abundant resources a long time ago, but we didn't, and now we face a dilemma.
A little background first. Most people know the basics of solar power: panels absorb the energy from the sun to make a current, thus producing electricity. A more in depth description here. This is the basic kind of solar power. There are other applications where the power of the sun is focused to produce more electricity while taking up less space. Some even use the heat from a focused beam to heat water and put the steam through turbines.
Now to the problem. Solar power is the one of the most expensive power sources today. Its long development has lead to electricity prices many times that of coal and hydroelectric power. Its actually a circle of a problem. The cost of solar panels and equipment to produce substantial energy is expensive. The price of these products could decrease if more of them were sold (law of supply and demand), but not very many people want to purchase them because they cost to much. Get it? This once again leads to the responsibility of the energy companies and the people themselves. Energy companies need to purchase more solar power and create new solar plants if they want to price to go down, and the people need to purchase the solar power from the companies if they want to have any chance of the price dropping. Yet another problem in America's energy crisis.
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I never thought of it that way. I always imagined it would be easy.
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I never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain
Umm... An increase in demand does not lead to a decrease in price, it leads to an increase in price and an increase in quantity supplied.
Yes, solar power is a viable alternative to fossil fuel for power plants. However, I thought that the vast majority of power plants no longer used fossil fuels to generate power... But I might be wrong.
You are right, I worded that wrong. I meant to say something along the lines of that when there is more of something out in the economy, the price goes down. For example, if you have a baseball card, and 15 million people have the same one, the value of the card isn't that much. It is sort of the same thing with the solar panels and accessories.
Fossil fuels are the majority of the fuel for power plants. See my post "Coal: The Main Event" or go to the Energy Information Administration's website.
It isn’t really about the numbers, because like price quantity produced/demanded is determined by supply and demand.
The cost of producing solar panels does not decrease because you made more; something else has to change that will allow suppliers to produce the same amount (or more) at a lower price. Developing technology so that solar panels can be created and installed at a lower price or a decrease in the price of inputs would do it.
Thanks for clearing up my misconception about power plants.
You might be correct on that one. I always thought of in the way they talk about hybrid/hydrogen/ect cars. People say that when more are sold the price will drop. I guess not. It might also be that manufacturing solar panels isn't top notch yet since everyone isn't buying them. I didn't say that great, but I think you understand. I will try and look up the reason for the high cost.
Thats why you make it required through legislation to have solar panels on every new building constructed. See my latest post for more information on energy solutions.
Damlier, if that were required for every new building, building would just about stop.
Maybe every new gov't building! "gig" That might work. of course "gig" because gov't building are expensive enough. I mean come on they just learned how to turn off the lights every night."ROTFL"
~Maybee Sinclair~
GO ME----Plant A TREE !!!!!
Dig the cynicism. That's what federal and state buildings are doing. They're leading the way with conservation. It's time that we the people dictate to our elected officials what type of power we want invested in, and developed, for the future. The public has a substantial role, not only as consumers in the market like the post indicates, but a role in the democratic process.
Every organism's heartbeat holds a universe of beauty at http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/green-underbelly