Comments on: Forget the Volt’s Roof, GM Puts World’s Largest Solar Roof on a Whole Assembly Plant

By: Alauddin, Md

Alauddin, Md — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:36:04 +0000

Fantastic. Great achievment.

Now would you please tell me the cost of 10 megawatts solar power plant and when this size will be available.

By: Ed M

Ed M — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:02:04 +0000

This may be good pr but I wonder how long it will take to pay for itself, anyone know.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for a cash strapped company to hold off on this kind of spending until they start turning a profit ?

By: wtfover

wtfover — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:57:48 +0000

“It’s also set to expire at the end of this year and the Republicans have kept it bottled up in committee in the Senate.”
—

Earth to Don the Republicans have not had control of any committees in the Senate since Jan 2007, if they’re blocking anything as suggested it’s because they’re getting help from Democrats.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:45:57 +0000

I live in California, so most of my knowledge is about companies here, but Borrego Solar has a one location in Boston.
http://www.borregosolar.com/solar-energy-company/solar-contractor.php

Solar City offers leases – you allow them to build on your roof, they own the equipment, so you don’t have to pay up front for solar.
http://www.solarcity.com/

Sunpower has a great cost calculator. They also offer integrated solar roof tiles as well as traditional panels mounted above the roof.
http://www.sunpowercorp.com/

By: Rogelio Cisneros

Rogelio Cisneros — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:43:36 +0000

You know they can build one in Arizona sun is alway up there , or death valley hot as hell there.Lol

By: DaveP

DaveP — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:53:27 +0000

#34 Mark H
Yeah, that’s the one, the 26650. The specs are on the datasheet I provided a link to. 5A is pretty doable, it’s just about 2x the 1 hour discharge rate (or 2C). A123’s technology allows some very high charge and discharge rates compared to other formulations (like 10C is no problem as I recall reading somewhere. The datasheet lists maximum continuous discharge rate at about 30C rate!).
It allows crazy things like this!:
http://www.killacycle.com/
I should also reiterate that I’m not a (the?) battery expert.

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:50:33 +0000

Solar is definitely an expensive proposition, but Germany has had great success and has beat their own oil lobby with leadership, something I’d like to see in the US but won’t hold my breath.

Here’s a pretty good article:

http://tinyurl.com/5w2b88

By: Rashiid Amul

Rashiid Amul — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:48:59 +0000

Don C #64. says “On the cost side perhaps they’re just giving the raw costs of the panels …”

Well it wouldn’t really surprise me. They are in sales mode after all.
However, I think I will call them and see how much an actual 3 KWH system will cost me out of pocket.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

By: DonC

DonC — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:26:59 +0000

Rashiid@#62

That’s an interesting site. Thanks!

In looking at the CA figures, the FREE seems overdone. The rebates seem overly generous and the installed costs too low. A 1kW system would probably cost close to $9000 and the state/utility rebate would probably be closer to $1900, meaning rather than FREE it would set you back something on the order of $5000.

On the cost side perhaps they’re just giving the raw costs of the panels …

By: DonC

DonC — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:16:09 +0000

jackson@#61

It really depends on whether the thin film solar panels pan out. Right now solar is 4X the cost of alternatives. The thin film firms, and there are a lot of them, are all confident that their technologies can provide power at a cost equal to or less than the alternatives. If they can then solar will pick up very quickly. If not then solar will remain a niche power source.

BTW I’ve seen a lot of designs for solar roof plug-in “garages”. Reminds me of Alaska, where we had plug in heaters for the radiators. At those temperatures you might need to juice the battery fairly frequently.