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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (145468)	4/19/2002 10:36:37 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574102

"What is tha actual potential of solar cells?" It depends on which of the technologies are used. Ovonics makes an amorphous silicon cell that is packaged so it looks like a composite shingle. Taking information from their site, 400 to 800 ft^2 of roof space would be needed to satisfy the electric demand for a typical house. ovonic.com "They may be efficient, but does the efficiency surpass that of turbines in power plants?" An oil or coal fired plant is somewhere around 40% efficient. Some of the newer, high efficiency gas turbines can be as high as 52%. Fuel cells are somewhere between 40% to 50% efficient with the molten carbonate ones being as high as 57%. In addition, the molten carbonate ones produce hot enough steam and CO2 that they could be run through a secondary turbine to produce electricity, thus boosting efficiencies even more.