[ExI] solar is looking better all the time: was RE: Efficiency of wind power

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 8:23 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> Thanks Kelly.

NP.

> I can imagine specialty applications like that where one has plenty of land,
> doesn't use the PV for home electronics (and so is still relying on the
> commercial grid) but rather uses the PVs to lift water from a deep aquifer
> to run a center pivot.  Out there in the eastern Oregon desert, there is
> intense sunlight all day every day during the time one needs the water.
> This would use a lot of PVs, but is still a specialty application.  I can
> imagine this arrangement being very common in the desert US west soon.

Depleting aquifers (largely fossil water) being another interesting
sustainability topic... ;-)

> The notion of maintaining a bunch of lead acid batteries in the home is not
> attractive.  Among other things, you have a huge contamination risk if you
> have a house fire, plus the room taken up in your house, oy.

I hadn't considered the batteries in a fire.. not pretty. Space wise,
it is all in a big box about three feet wide and four feet long and
about two and a half feet tall. So it's not all that big given a rural
house.

-Kelly