Solar Panels and Rooftop Savings

[Water Truth]

I was screwing around with google earth the other day and I couldn't help but notice all the rooftops.

Acres and Acres of rooftops.

So, with all this talk of energy shortages and increased demand and whatnot, I was wondering what kind of impact solar panels on rooftops would make on demand?

Have a government funded incentive to place solar panels on your roof with an A/C inverter inside your house. Have it as a supplement to the grid and feed back into the grid when either your not using juice or your producing more than you are using. Have an automatic breaker switch to sever the connection when the grid goes down so you don't electrocute poor power workers.

Does anybody have experience with solar panels? Would this be an economical idea to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? Or is it a pipe dream? Or would the oil companies never let something like this happen?

Thoughts?

[LMagic007]

Welcome to the forum. Weather permitting, you are right of course. All in good time. I think energy diversification is part of the key. That would include various forms of renewable energy like solar PV and solar thermal domestic and commercial solar PV and CSP, wind, tidal, wave, biomass etc... leaving fossil fuels for when we really need them. That trend is already happening, though fast enough seems rarely fast enough nowadays.

[hefler]

Depends where you are in the world I think. Sunny locations fine, but if you're not then there are far greater (and cost effective) gains to be made by employing energy efficiency measures first, before you even think about solar panels.

[Water Truth]

Originally Posted by hefler

Depends where you are in the world I think. Sunny locations fine, but if you're not then there are far greater (and cost effective) gains to be made by employing energy efficiency measures first, before you even think about solar panels.

I agree, but I think it's part and parcel.

We're extremely energy hungry in this country, and I think some pretty radical change in the way we all use energy needs to be implemented.

Why do office buildings need to leave so many lights on at night? Why did my douchebag ex roomate need his 1000 watt stereo system and multitude of lights, computers and electronic gadgets?

What I'm wondering though is if there would be a payback in the energy required to make all these panels and the time to install them vs. the energy gains seen, especially in Canada where the suns rays come in at a steep angle most of the time?

[LMagic007]

Embedded manufacturing energy footprint payback determination might be more complicated, but not impossible to get a fair idea. It's a very good point to raise. I think one might also consider other dynamics, such as the evolution of the technology over time. i.e. developing the technology today, may result in technical solutions in years to come that might more clearly show embedded energy recovery. i.e. once we have the right technology, then we could be recovering embedded energy and some, forever and a day on a massive scale, by using the sun as a source for that energy recovery.

Obviously in terms of investment payback periods could depend on each specific situation, though it can be worked out roughly, based on isolation and your electricity charge against the solar PV panel cost and rating. From an environmental perspective though, it's the embedded energy recovery and producing some extra energy in net terms that matters the most. Of course we are really only diverting solar energy to do work, but the net result is positive if the energy recovery or replacement goal can be met.