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To: Randy Ellingson who wrote (127780)	7/5/2001 6:21:46 PM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

ok, it's obvious you have done much more research than i have about this solar stuff. so i should be asking you the questions, not the other way around. i'm not sure i want to invest in a solar company just yet. i would prefer to wait and see considering the state of our markets and economy. what i would really like to know is if the move to solar in the coming years is going to have any material impact on the demand for batteries. of course batteries are used with solar for energy storage when it clouds up or it's dark outside, so i would be curious to know how many batteries are used in a typical installation. of course there is no guarantee that a lot of batteries will be needed, because i suspect many large solar installations will be hooked into the grid so excess capacity can be fed back in and credited for later use when there's not enough light. i'm not sure how it would all work, but it's something to keep an eye on in the coming years. if millions of homes convert to solar and want to be totally self-reliant and not have to rely on the utilities, they will need to use batteries for storage. i suspect they will be lead-acid batteries because these are by far the cheapest ones out there. that's why i would prefer to not have to deal with who is going to win the solar game and if there is going to be good margins, i would rather try to figure out if solar is going to spur demand for a commodity such as lead. then i don't have to worry about who is going to be the winner. i just have to figure out if solar is going to be big, and if it will use a lot of batteries.