Solar Energy can it be competitive with other sources of electricity? Image From http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/tech_talk/2008/05/photovoltaic_moores_law_on_tra.html

Introduction In this presentation I will be talking about the costs and effectiveness of solar energy against other means of obtaining power such as fossil fuels. I will be covering the imputations of having solar power as a main means of power The foreseeable future of solar power Why solar power is not used more

Solar power energy against other means of power From 1998 to 2008 the costs solar power systems have declined by 30 percent From 10.80 per watt to 7.50 a watt Solar power and subsidies with coal, natural gas, wind or nuclear How could solar energy be competitive? The costs of solar power systems have declined by 30 percent from 10.80 to 7.50 a watt this sounds promising as everyone wants cheaper power for the feature but there are issues that need to be addressed before solar power can be cheap as £1, or $1 a Watt. We cannot live just on solar power alone. We also need fossil fuels to carry on with our massive amount of energy needs. With solar power and fossil fuels together, it would work out at a cost of just £1 a Watt. Solar power only works best on roof tops or integrated into construction material so that the electricity is consumed at the point of production. If solar installations costs declined at a rate of 30prcent per decade and put the price down to £2/W from the current cost of £7.50 a Watt it would take solar power to the mid century to become fully economically competitive

Implications of solar power In solar power there is a Law that stops it been completive already How would we measure claims made about Moore's Law? Solar Power is too new What are the main implications of solar power? In solar power technology there is some kind of Moore's law. Moore’s Law is the theory where the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on a microchip every two years can hold the cost down by 20% with every doubling of installation. To see and evaluate claims about there being a solar power Moore's law, you would want to measure and see the performance in terms of levelized costs. What I mean by this is to see the same amount we all see on our monthly utility bills namely cents or penny's per hour. Solar power is a new part of the green technology world today. And this means that the cost to invest is expensive. The costs of solar energy are measured as ‘busbarcost’. This is the cost of electricity at the point where it is fed into the electricity grid. This also means taking these costs into consideration, investment, financing, operation, maintenance etc. The main implications of solar power are, Volume, quality, and components

The Olmedilla solar power park is the largest in the world The Olmedilla solar power park is the largest in the world. It was built in 2008 and is still the largest installation in the world. It has a 60MW at peak power and makes 85GW a year. It can power 40,000 homes all year around.

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Summery Is solar power a good thing? Is solar power a reliable source of energy? Cost When will solar power be competitive with other kinds of Green energy's? As we only have enough oil to last us 30 more years, the environmentally friendly use of solar power would be able to operate for as long as the sun keeps shining. At this present time, solar power technology is not advanced enough to manage the amount of energy it would need to produce. However, improvements can be made and solar power may well be a competitive and reliable source of energy in the near future. Solar power is not yet effectively cost-efficient, this stands with the Moore's law, saying that every two years the cost of photovoltaic systems will go down, and this means that it will become cheaper in time. Solar power will not be competitive with other green energy's until the technology is developed more on a big scale. It will take until 2015 or maybe more just to be the same kind of scale as wind.

Link to video about Article www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jxs49aCUxA

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Reference Article website http://spectrum.ieee.org/ Webpage of article http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/energy/renewables/energywise/photovoltaic-grid-parity Slide show back Ground picture http://tokyogreenspace.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/solar-power.jpg Graph information http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=10-largest-renewable-energy-projects&photo_id=ACAC0F2E-EC36-52B7-F3F55FE60D5CE59C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashiwazaki-Kariwa_Nuclear_Power_Plant http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/largest-offshore-wind-farm-to-go-online/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam