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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum
GLD 366.09-0.1%4:00 PM EST
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To: TobagoJack who wrote (27975)1/20/2008 10:15:34 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (2) of 217551
 
Photovoltaics. QUALCOMM has installed a substantial area of photovoltaics in San Diego: internetcommunications.tmcnet.com

Apart from being reasonably priced electricity [I suppose, at current coal/oil/gas prices] it also provides energy security. If there is carnage in the oil world, so that even diesel generators get a problem, the photovoltaics will just keep humming along [not that they actually hum - they are more efficient than that].

Kyocera is a buddy of QUALCOMM so perhaps there's some quid pro quo there too, such as making photovoltaics cheap enough to put on base stations in East Timor to avoid the need for reticulated electricity which is not very secure in dodgy places.

The last time I checked, [over a decade ago] the break-even energy equivalent of photovoltaics was something like $50 a barrel of oil. Meaning, with oil below that price, photovoltaics had limited market prospects. Above it, oil would be losing a lot of market share. Meaning that the grid would be overtaken by photovoltaics [in the sun belt if not London, England].

I have been a fan club member of BP Solar and photovoltaics in general since the 1980s. There is NO shortage of silicon, unlike platinum for catalytic converters. So once it's economic, the sky's the limit.

Mqurice
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