• Bosch to abandon solar energy business
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[url]http://news.yahoo.com/bosch-abandon-solar-energy-business-143209492.html[/url] [QUOTE]BERLIN (AP) — German engineering company Bosch said Friday that it is abandoning its solar energybusiness, because there is no way to make it economically viable amid overcapacity and huge price pressure in the industry. The solar power industry has been hit by falling subsidies, weaker sales and increasingly stiff price competition, especially by Chinese manufacturers. Robert Bosch GmbH's move came after German industrial conglomerate Siemens announced last October that it would give up its loss-making solar business. [/QUOTE]
Too bad. Other companies will just take their market share though..
Leave it to the chinese. If there's anyone who can drag down the price per square inch for solar cells it can be China and their ability to crank out product by the square meter with an unethically lower price ratio.
[QUOTE=MIPS;40016775]Leave it to the chinese. If there's anyone who can drag down the price per square inch for solar cells it can be China and their ability to crank out product by the square meter with an unethically lower price ratio.[/QUOTE] and unethical worker conditions as well [editline]24th March 2013[/editline] generalisation of course
Good. Solar power is a pipe dream anyway, we lack the technology to get solar panels beyond 5-10% efficiency, we're not making any progress in improving them, and battery tech renders them absolutely useless on a large scale. Now put that money into fusion already. We [i]are[/i] making progress there.
[QUOTE=TestECull;40018364]we lack the technology to get solar panels beyond 5-10% efficiency[/QUOTE] so the best thing to do is obviously to stop development on them [QUOTE=TestECull;40018364] Now put that money into fusion already. We [i]are[/i] making progress there.[/QUOTE] The sun is a gigantic fusion reactor already made for us that we're wasting
[QUOTE=TestECull;40018364]Good. Solar power is a pipe dream anyway, we lack the technology to get solar panels beyond 5-10% efficiency, we're not making any progress in improving them, and battery tech renders them absolutely useless on a large scale. Now put that money into fusion already. We [i]are[/i] making progress there.[/QUOTE] A quick google search says efficiency is at 17% right now, and that's a bad way to think of things. Even if efficiency couldn't exceed 10% it would still be beneficial to reduce the cost of panels so they can be more widely adopted. The sun is effectively free energy and it would be silly to ignore it. If panels were cheap enough to be on every rooftop, there would be a LOT of energy captured from that.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;40018415]so the best thing to do is obviously to stop development on them The sun is a gigantic fusion reactor already made for us that we're wasting[/QUOTE] On the top of the sun, solar isn't really viable as primary/secondary because its not constantly giving out power, and the idea of storing it in batteries is impractical. Though solar is good for supplementary power to primary/second.
[QUOTE=TestECull;40018364]Good. Solar power is a pipe dream anyway, we lack the technology to get solar panels beyond 5-10% efficiency, we're not making any progress in improving them, and battery tech renders them absolutely useless on a large scale. Now put that money into fusion already. We [i]are[/i] making progress there.[/QUOTE] bullshit, we can already get 25-30% and this will increase. I had a professor of renewable energy say that two weeks ago in class. edit: just checked, 25-30 is in the lab. have a picture: [img]http://www.imgur.com/gMHDfRS.jpeg[/img] also, fusion power is a very uncertain field. If it even works, it will not be usable before 2050
Solar is great. We need both fusion power and solar power. [editline]24th March 2013[/editline] [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xrVD3tcVWTY#t=3210s[/url] The truth is, we won't be able to compete with China.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;40018415]so the best thing to do is obviously to stop development on them [/QUOTE] Producing billions of shitty panels won't magically improve development of non-shitty ones. Development of solar panels goes mostly independently on the demand is guaranteed due to space tech and such. Of course lots of solar power plants would start popping up if we got 30% efficiency panels, but it doesn't mean we have to bother with the 5% efficiency ones. The current tech ones are ineffective by principle, there's little that can be improved right on the production line, and it doesn't matter if Bosch produces them or not, as they can rather invest into development done by actual dedicated laboratories without producing them. [quote] The sun is a gigantic fusion reactor already made for us that we're wasting[/quote] Yeah, we are wasting it by covering land with solar power plants instead of forests and other plant based ecosystems, which do much better job at utilizing the energy. (I am not speaking about deserts, you can do whatever you want in deserts).
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