Trekrider

I sent the message below to three separate Solar Energy companies to get help for my daughter's school project. I wish I could say that I was surprised that not one of them answered. Just goes to show what a con Solar electric is.

"I wonder if you could help me with an enquiry for my daughter. She is doing an assignment for school on solar energy and for this she is covering solar cells.

As part of the assignment she has to provide three benefits and three disadvantages of using solar electricity.

I'm afraid we are struggling to come up with three benefits and wonder if you can help?

Obviously solar energy is a renewable energy source but that is about as far as we can go on benefits.

For the normal householder, solar electricity is more expensive than conventional energy even if the RECs are taken to offset the cost. Additionally, I am told that taking the RECs mean that someone else can use your credits to offset their own energy use – this means that it can't be claimed that it is a clean energy source unless you don't take the RECs in which case the cost of solar energy greatly exceeds the cost of conventional energy.

I am hoping that you can help my daughter on this as the assignment is very important to her."

Vash the Stampede

Surely all it proves is that they're not good at answering their correspondence.

Trekrider

I bet they would have answered quickly enough if I had asked them to come round and give me a quote.

johnnyx0

Try the Green party, or Greenpeace, maybe a government sustainability department (not that you have one in WA - try Sustainability Victoria), they'll be happy to help - probably....

Vash the Stampede

Naturally.

"Local business in child's homework information refusal shocker!"

Trekrider

Thanks, I will look into that. I have just sent the question to Planet Ark - not that I expect an answer from them either.

Vash the Stampede

Try these geezers as well: www.greenheat.com.au

Trekrider

Thanks, but why? They don't appear to do Solar Electric - only Solar Hot Water.

Vash the Stampede

Ah, my mistake.

Trekrider

No worries

Kooky.

This might help. Might not, but you can always search the site and/or contact Greenpeace Aus Pac for more info. I hear they're very friendly folk.

http://www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/energy/?p=524

http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/...outlook-250509

Burbage

Solar power:

Advantages
Incredibly cheap once technology is in place
No requirement for additional industry to provide fuel and remove waste
Completely clean power environmentally.
Possibility for personal power station to supply own needs.

Disadvantages
Actually, for a country like Australia there are none. For a country like Britain the efficiency will decrease due to the lack of sunshine.

Politically there are huge disadvantages:
The coal mining industry, the waste management industry, the transport industry and the carbon credits scam will all no longer be required forcing huge numbers of people out of work and losing enormous tax revenue for the government (all of which the customer of the energy companies currently pays for via their electricity bill). About 50 people will probably be required to run a solar power station. Therefore the last thing the government wants to do is bring in solar power, particularly a government that is tied to the trade unions (ie Labor, so their offering is "clean coal" which is designed to add even more people to the energy provision workforce) or building surpluses (ie LibNat whose offering is nuclear power which still requires all the mining and waste management industries).

The main real disadvantage is the cost of setting it up, which wouldn't be an issue if Australia had been working towards solar power from day one, as they should have been if they'd elected a government that wanted to serve the electorate rather than themselves.

There you go. Essay done.

MartinLuther

I think the only other advantage, the government grant, has died.

Without the grant it's hard to see how it can repay the cost of installation.

Trekrider

Thanks for the suggestions but I don't agree - don't forget that this was for the normal householder.

"Incredibly cheap once technology is in place" - so you are saying it is cheap to run but costs a lot to put in place. This is self cancelling and actually a disadvantage as currently it can't save enough to repay the cost within the life of the cells.
"No requirement for additional industry to provide fuel and remove waste" - only if you produce enough to be self sufficient but this would be cancelled out to a large extent by the industry fuel and waste disposal to produce the solar cells and storage batteries etc.
"Completely clean power environmentally." - but what about the environmental impact of producing the panels and batteries? Also the subsequent replacement and disposal of batteries at the end of their life.
"Possibility for personal power station to supply own needs." - only if you add batteries to the system which would hugely increase the cost.

Trekrider

The grant has been replaced with a new one. It used to be $8,000 per installation but means tested. Not available if household income was above $100,000.

The new grant is up to $7,500 without a means test. For a 1kW system (equivalent to 5 units per day) it is $4,000. Still nowhere near enough to make it economically viable.