Introducing Commentary on RE<C

RE<C

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/index.html

Renewable Energy already is cheaper than coal, they just don't "get it" yet.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/science/energy_calculator.html
1 Short Ton = 20,754,000 Btu

22,895 MWhs = 7.812098e+010 BTU = 3,764 tons of coal, roughly one ton of coal every two days, energy-equivalent mined from the sky.

We now have the energy equivalent between coal and Solar PV from cheap polysilicon crystals. What we don't have is an understanding of the difference between PRICE and COST.

Lousey 13% net efficient PV is 12 watts per square foot measured out the panel output. On an acre basis (43,560 square feet) that is 522,720 watt-hours per peak sunny hour, and in all or parts of 8 southwestern states that is 3.136 megawatt-hours per day. Over the 20 year warranty period of modern PV panels that comes to (365 x 20 x 3.136 MWhs) 22,895 MWhs of energy mined from the sky from one acre using cheap polycrystal PV.

PV is going down in price 19% every time the installed base doubles, which was every 3 years from 1979 through 2000. Lately the doubling is closer to every two years but the price has gone up thanks to the Bushite corporate policies which allowed crnering the world market of silicon feedstock by the energy profiteers 9of the Oil & Coal companies. Ironic, isn't it?

Coal and Oil both are also going up. The cost to build a coal plant has nearly doubled in two years. While coal has increased and decreased in local markets, the price generally goes up. The ONLY energy supply that has ever gone down in price has been solar, and in a free-working market with cartel monopoly prosecution for restraint of trade solar would still be going down the steady 19% every doubling.

Solar polycrystal PV is made out of the same stuff that beer bottles and beer cans is made out of: Aluminum and Silicon. When PV is made in the same volumes as beer bottles it will cost the same as beer bottles.

PV is only part of the price equation. It costs a megabuck per mile for wiring to bring megawatts from the hinterlands into city hearts. PV can be mounted in the cities without any of that costs.

PV energy can also be pipelined into town in buried pipes for half the cost of overhead wires in an H2-PV world. The pipes themselves serve as hydrogen storage containers. A 12" diameter pipeline the length of the US Interstate Highway would hold 10 billion kilos of hydrogen at pressures similar to the scuba tanks that people strap on their backs. 10 billion kilos is enough to drive 200,000,000 fuel cell cars from Los Angeles to NYC.

Cars not only convert the hydrogen back to electricity for driving, but can also power the country as a distributed grid. There's 200,000,000 cars and light trucks now, with a 15 year turnover. By as early as 2022 date they could all be plug-in-electric vehicles with V2G capability and hydrogen range-extenders. 72 kWh storage capacity would power all US homes for six days on batteries; each 60 kilowatt fuel cell could power 60 homes for each hour the car has fuel.

People are now trained with laptops and cell phones to plug in every chance they get, and when your car is part of the power grid that keeps the lights on at home, work and school, you can bet people will do it conscientiously. Especially when they are paid for being part of the energy storage grid, they will plug in every chance they see a power plug.

Cars will be integrated into the power grid, but maybe more importantly, they will be joined in a large computer server grid. It takes as much computer power to keep a V2G car synched to the power-grid, buying and selling power while you sleep or work, as it does on your desktop. Parking lots will be large server farms, with 200,000,000 nodes coming on and off.

What does it cost to NOT HAVE ALL THAT? That's the price of coal. It's not what you get, but what you lose that's important in this equation. Coal is just too damn expensive compared to the H2-PV world of V2G cars.