Solar Power Eliminates Utility Bills in U.S. Home

[fireandrain]

Yahoo! News is running an article about a New Jersey home that uses solar power to provide 100% of its energy needs, including fuel for the owner's hydrogen fuel cell-powered automobile. From the article: 'Strizki runs the 3,000-square-foot house with electricity generated by a 1,000-square-foot roof full of photovoltaic cells on a nearby building, an electrolyzer that uses the solar power to generate hydrogen from water, and a number of hydrogen tanks that store the gas until it is needed by the fuel cell. In the summer, the solar panels generate 60 percent more electricity than the super-insulated house needs. The excess is stored in the form of hydrogen which is used in the winter -- when the solar panels can't meet all the domestic demand -- to make electricity in the fuel cell.'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070118/lf_nm/solar_home_dc

[debs]

I wonder how MY neighbors would feel if I loaded up their roof with solar cells...

[fireandrain]

Originally Posted by debs

I wonder how MY neighbors would feel if I loaded up their roof with solar cells...

If you were my neighbor, I'd let you I might even let you have any excess electricity after my needs are met

[tracy]

Considering it costs $500,000 I wonder how long the payback period would be? Hmm?

And this is the reason so few people (including me) are "green".

Sure it's not cost effective. Prototypes and one-offs rarely are.

As a proof-of-concept, though, it's highly successful. This guy is demonstrating, not just hand-waving, that one can be entirely energy self-sufficient through solar power, even with the crappy efficiency of current mass produced photovoltaic panels.

Find a way to increase the efficiency and/or drop the price of the panels (and H2 storage system, fuel cells, etc) and it starts to look really attractive. More so if you want to build somewhere way off-grid. And without some of the attendant problems of a windmill.

The next time somebody argues that you can't live off-grid just on solar power, you can point to this guy. Then the argument comes down to cost-effectiveness, which depends on a lot of other factors.

[Jeroenla]

Off course, "normal people" could just start with a relative cheap investment.. start with a solar boiler or something and then save up the savings for the next investment.

No need to buy it all at once, you can also take it one step at a time

[shantianti]

Jeroenla wrote

start with a solar boiler or something and then save up the savings for the next investment.

No need to buy it all at once, you can also take it one step at a time

That's such a great idea,starting small then using the savings for further solar panels.
I'm trying to get my parents and sister to invest in solar (I rent) and this is a good way for them to see it's possible without investing loads of money right up front. I know in Australia there are subsidies for changing to solar so that is another incentive.