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I have to post about a significant advance at the school three miles from home. A Colorado State Mech. Eng. prof devised a more efficient way to produce photovoltaic solar panels. The current cost to produce PV panels is ~$5/watt. He expects to be producing them at <$1/watt, selling to consumers at $2/watt. This is on par with capital costs for coal fired plants. Efficiency is 11% to 13%. The company, AVA Solar, expects to begin production by the end of 2007.

There is a lot of info at www.avasolar.com

Greg

Cost reductions like that will be really great as some of the
aging arrays that people put in place in the 70s and 80s start
needing replacement...
.
_H*

$2/watt would be great. I've been disappoint to see PV prices actually rise slightly over the past few years.

Of course, having looked into it for my own home, I've learned that even at today's prices much of the cost of a PV comes from control equipment and installation costs.

I would like to cover my roofing with solar panels but I'm somewhat concerned about possible hail damage. Does anyone here know anything about that?

We had some pretty large sized hail last year so I'm possibly more nervous than I should be. It wrecked a couple of plastic lawn tables, the pool supplies container, and the pool cover. :(

You might try googling it, Sean. I just did. They go thru hail impact tests.
Of course, I suppose your hail could be bigger than the tests...
I'm curious about this as well. It is a more long term project but I am at least thinking of thermal solar. My understanding is they are not too expensive as panels go and they will pretty well pay for themselves in NM.

--des

I would like to cover my roofing with solar panels but I'm somewhat concerned about possible hail damage. Does anyone here know anything about that?

We had some pretty large sized hail last year so I'm possibly more nervous than I should be. It wrecked a couple of plastic lawn tables, the pool supplies container, and the pool cover. :(