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Thermal Solar for the home? (Read 1269 times)

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Re: Thermal Solar for the home?
Reply #15 - Jan 15^th, 2014 at 2:28pm

Jed Stuart wrote on Jan 15^th, 2014 at 1:49pm:

Quote:

Current PV pannels are mostly made of silicon (ie sand) so no real problems with supply. The cost obstacle is the process to make them.

According to Wikipedia which seems pretty good on PVs

"Materials presently used for photovoltaics include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide/sulphide "

Does the planet have endless resources of these things I have never even heard of? Solar thermal systems seem to be mainly made of steel.

It's an either/or thing. As you've pointed out, three of the alternatives are forms of silicone. Most of the surface of the planet is silicone.

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Re: Thermal Solar for the home?
Reply #16 - Jan 15^th, 2014 at 2:32pm

Jed Stuart wrote on Jan 15^th, 2014 at 2:03pm:

Doctor Jolly wrote on Jan 6^th, 2014 at 3:00pm:

[quote author=Jed_S link=1388981538/0#0 date=1388981538]
The trouble is you need some "machine" to convert steam into power. A steam engine and a generator. This makes it expensive and need maintenance.

Solar PV with a Battery bank is the prefered small scale system because it has no real maintenance requirements at all.

Having had a look around at other systems, solar Stirling thermal seems to be a better option than steam. There have been some big systems created but dismantled because PVs are less expensive, but will that change? It seems a fantastically simple engine but probably also more expensive to produce for a small scale solar thermal parabolic dish thing. That should be able to be made safe as far as fire risk goes.

The problem is moving parts. They wear. PV doesn't have them.

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