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Old 02-27-2009, 12:43 PM   #20
simonsays
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psicodude View Post
Yeah, I understand what you guys are saying, and I agree that even small advancements are still advancements. I guess I still have a problem with environmental technologies in general. The only way average Joe is going to use them, is if his investement pays for itself in a reasonable amount of time, and saves him cash at the end of the month.

Not trying to start a debate over the environment or anything, just saying this is the unfortunate truth.
Absolutely, and the start-up costs on running individual houses on solar power are still sky high. Because even if you have an efficient (and cheap) enough solar panel you're still going to need to either store that energy in a battery or sell that energy to the grid. And having millions of mini-producers isn't something that our energy grids can handle at this point in time.

But this technology is a step in the right direction. Getting better efficiency out of plastics (rather than silica) is huge in that it massively drops the price of the panel itself.
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