Is solar power a real option to replace fossil fuels in the next few years or is it a bunch of hype?
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I hope Applied Materials is correct, but it is a long shot for the next few years. Probably might take a minimum of 20 years. There are a great deal of hurdles to jumped. You may be too young to recall, but during the Carter administration 30 years ago now, we were going to have nuclear fusion is a few years and the government dumped billions into the research. So far we are still a long way and billions and billions more off.
More recently biotechnology was the hot topic. I can not even venture to guess how much money investors lost, including myself I might add, investing in biotechnology companies. Today it is nano-technology. A year or so ago hot nano companies with no products, just a fancy name, were selling above $100 a share.
I just love fads.
Hydrogen is the best option, you can make it by electrocuting water..and the exhaust is oxygen, which counters the carbon dioxide in the air. The Hindenburg gave hydrogen a bad rap, but imagine that explosion if it had been filled with gasoline!
Solar Power is already a profitable market. The hard part is coming up with the up front cost to get started. After a few years you will start to make money even if your current electric cost is only 6.6 cents per kWh.
In parts of the USA where the cost per kWh is 19 cents a person can install a full sized system to fit their total electric needs and start getting real money back after just years. Where in areas of the USA where the cost per kWh is lower as I said above 6.6 cents. You have to buy a smaller solar electric system and wait about 12 years. Solar panels last about 40 years, some panels built back in the 60's are still in use. So after the 12 years pay back time every kWh you put back in the grid or run a light from is nothing but pure pay back and money put in your pocket.
I built an Excel spread sheet to prove this. Check it out if you like. It will open in your browser window but really needs to be downloaded and ran off line. It is showing a sample system that proves solar is profitable in the hardest place to be profitable "Arkansas". You can change the numbers in blue text to view other places by picking the sun hours and inputting your own cost per kWh.
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