Where are my royalties, call my patent attorney! technically since this invention was revealed publicly on my blog and others a few years ago, is it even patentable? Not sure, but I'm glad they did it.
Check out this video of the Solar decathalon building competition in DC. The Boulder, Colorado entry uses both heat and electric power generation from the same panels. You save money by getting your hot water free, and even home heating/cooling for free with the help of geo heat exchange heating/cooling, then you save money by getting your electricty for free too.
Those multiple sources of savings from the same solar installation makes it pay off a lot faster. And in a few short years when the panels pay their way in electric bill savings, your energy is free. In half the time with 10 cent per kwh subsidies. Wisconsin electric power pays 23 cents per kwh for solar, passing their government credit onto customers.
Kind of nice in retirement. Or anytime of life with todays outsourcing of jobs (with government tax breaks for corporations that outsource) and ever rising energy costs.
Plugin a plugin hybrid to these panels and get free local trips as well. Around 50 miles between charging. And you can sell kwhs from your solar panels to the local power company, then use the money to charge up your car at work, school, or the shopping center. Free 100 mile round trip, and GHG free too!
Maybe hardly ever buy gas except on longer trips, vacations and so forth. These kinds of savings are equal to at least half the income of one of the lower wage jobs available to those who are suddenly unemployed by corporate/government greed.
That's a good investment. good for taxpayers too, if the subsidy for solar is diverted from corporate welfare tax breaks for fossil, nuclear, and agribizz fuel farming corporations. It is tax neutral, no new taxes. And stabilizes energy prices. No more energy inflation. Once enough panels pay off to power the nation, along with farm biogas and wind and conservation, energy prices level off. Maybe in 10 years.
That's good for the economy and the currency. Right now run away energy price inflation is eating away at our standard of living. Driven by hedge funds and energy companies manipulating markets and even starting wars. It's all about oil. In Iraq and so many other places where battles rage. They will fight over coal soon. As oil runs out.
A fascinating feature of this Colorado entry in the Solar Decathalon, that a friend pointed out to me, is the simple modular nature of the solar energy and energy conservation system. No complicated designs to choose from and assemble for home owners and builders.
Just the simplest, most direct and reliable design (perfect for mass production in local factories) that generates and saves a predictable, easily tested amount of energy for a certain sized home in a certain climate. Subsidies are easy that way too. It can be computed by how many kwh are generated, saved, and sold onto the local grid. 10 cents per kwh, a check to the homeowner right out of the exxonmob's pocket!
(18 billion + 7 billion in unpaid lease fees in corporate welfare went to oil companies alone last year, supposedly to spur domestic drilling. They didn't spend it on drilling. That's the only blessing in this corporate welfare rip off.)
Imagine home owners being able to see the cost, payback period, and size and type of home that can be powered by a given solar/conservation heating/cooling/electric power module. Right on the side of various homes featuring this technology that they can visit. now what are those costs likely to be? Stay tuned I will try to come up with some estimates.
Buy your energy system with your plugin hybrid car. All compatable. The power company hooks up their lines, the builder hooks up the house to the utility core. The home owner plugin in their car for charging. Simple.
The utility core can have it's own smart grid computer to control all power input and output. That eventually connects via smart grid internet, to all the other smart grid distributed computers. Excel energy and others are working on that part. But even stand alone, disconnected from the grid, these utility core modules would power your home and car.
The earthship architect , would love this stand alone power system, But I bet he could be convinced to install a buried cable internet enabled smart grid. I think I'll write him and ask him what he thinks of all this.
