[Greenbuilding] FW: Cheap Solar Cells are Here

[Chris Green]

Keith Winston wrote:
> There are several very big thin-film  project under way, Nanosolar is 
> the biggest. It is exciting, but of course we should all be cautious 
> about "too cheap to meter." 
True, but if the first generation of these work  (even middlin'ly well 
)...and I have no reason to doubt they do at this time...the change-over 
will be quite dramatic.
> <snip> Things are coming down VERY fast.
>
> Keith
>   
And then there are some rumoured developments on the battery/ storage 
side of things that I read about this spring: high density/ high 
capacity solid state batteries will (appearently) soon arrive in 
selected markets and for certain applications, especially in at least 
one brand of electric vehicles. And the new Gel battery packs appearing 
in cordless tools seem to offer a significant weight reduction, judging 
by my personal comparison of those to the older Lithium-Ion batteries.

The stuff I've read this year already  about ways to generate usable 
hydrogen are quite exciting, and it would be nice to hear an inkling 
about what's going on in the nanotechnology labs right 
now.......However, it will take some time for all this to work it's way 
through the system to the markets of the world.

So, exactly what can happen in 15 years? How about having in excess of 1 
billion people gaining access to the internet? That's what happened over 
the last 15 years.....

"Build it and they will come."
W. P. Kinsella, in his book, Shoeless Joe.

Cheers,

Chris Green.