New nuclear plants get go-ahead

[Mama Sumae]

I'm a firm believer that in the future Solar energy will be a major producer of electricity but I doubt it will be from such large projects.

Agree, the future of solar energy will most certainly involve micro generation and become our major energy source.

Yet i feel there is too much discussion towards future energy production technologies what about increasing energy efficiency in the present and future?

It seems unreasonable to wait for an technology capable of supporting our energy needs while so much can be done regarding the mass of those same needs.

And I dont mean asking people to use less energy... equipment design, power distribution and how energy is generally used can be revised in terms of efficiency. In terms of numbers it is estimated that 30% of the energy used in our homes goes to waste with unnecessary consumption such as standby equipments.

If we dont use it we dont need it, production costs and pollution are avoided.


.

[chicken]

What we need is a solar/wind power scheme along the lines of Germany so it becomes within people's budgets to generate much of their own power needs.

Germany Embraces the Sun

[Lee H]

The problem with using solar cells is that their efficency is still pretty low overall as the highest efficency reported is 28%.

Maybe in the near future as technology progresses more and more of these cells will be installed and used to fuel our homes and PC's but at the moment a quick fix is needed while technology progresses.

[[GSV]Trig]

Its not just the efficiency of the panels its the fact that only a small portion of the suns rays are of any use when they get to the surface, hence the idea of having them in space...