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Home > Archive > Alternative Power sources > July 2006 > Re: Do any makers of photovoltaic cells power their facilities with
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Re: Do any makers of photovoltaic cells power their facilities with
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| R.H. Allen 2006-07-19, 1:25 pm |
| CJT wrote:
> I rather doubt it.
Why does this question keep coming up lately (perhaps not in this group,
but in a couple of others)...?
Solarex (since purchased by BP Solar) powered its plant in Maryland
largely with PV panels in the early '80s. It makes no economic sense to
do so, though, and the load profile of a PV plant are not well suited to
the supply profile of PV panels anyway. AFAIK, the only reason Solarex
did it was to generate a little attention when the PV market was at an
all-time low and they couldn't sell any modules.
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| andre_54005@yahoo.com wrote:
> R.H. Allen wrote:
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>
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> I think the whole bootstrap thing just appeals to a lot of people.
> _____________
> Andre' B.
>
One assumes the manufacturers are in the best position possible to
evaluate and use their own product. If they decide against such use,
that speaks much louder than (marketing) words.
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| Anthony Matonak 2006-07-20, 3:25 am |
| CJT wrote:
....
> One assumes the manufacturers are in the best position possible to
> evaluate and use their own product. If they decide against such use,
> that speaks much louder than (marketing) words.
Doesn't mean a thing. A manufacturer that doesn't use it's own
products simply means that they find it better to use something
else.
For instance, say a company makes emergency electric generators.
Would you expect them to get all their electricity from their
own generators? How about a company that makes specialty glass?
Do you expect them to use only their own glass in all their own
windows?
Why would you expect a solar PV manufacturer to use PV's that
are better suited for off-grid sites when they themselves are
not off-grid?
Anthony
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| R.H. Allen 2006-07-20, 1:25 pm |
| CJT wrote:
> andre_54005@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> One assumes the manufacturers are in the best position possible to
> evaluate and use their own product. If they decide against such use,
> that speaks much louder than (marketing) words.
You're not a big fan of natural gas turbines then, I guess. Buying
electricity from the grid is cheaper than operating a natural gas
turbine to generate electricity for the process, plus you can sell (and
generate revenue from) the turbines you would have kept had you insisted
on running your factory from them. It's not like those coal plants,
which get their construction energy from mobile coal-fired power plants
on the backs of trucks, right?
Obviously your argument is complete and total nonsense. Even if PV
panels were the cheapest source of electricity on earth it would be
stupid to tie up a manufacturing plant for several years making panels
that will never be sold. The capital investment that would be required
to finance that would be ridiculous, yet all it would accomplish is to
increase the price of PV panels and reduce the number of people using
PV. Why on earth would any sensible PV company executive think that
would be a good thing?
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| R.H. Allen wrote:
> CJT wrote:
>
>
>
> You're not a big fan of natural gas turbines then, I guess. Buying
> electricity from the grid is cheaper than operating a natural gas
> turbine to generate electricity for the process, plus you can sell (and
> generate revenue from) the turbines you would have kept had you insisted
> on running your factory from them. It's not like those coal plants,
> which get their construction energy from mobile coal-fired power plants
> on the backs of trucks, right?
Not everybody has ready access to a coal mine.
>
> Obviously your argument is complete and total nonsense.
Says you.
Even if PV
> panels were the cheapest source of electricity on earth it would be
> stupid to tie up a manufacturing plant for several years making panels
> that will never be sold. The capital investment that would be required
> to finance that would be ridiculous, yet all it would accomplish is to
> increase the price of PV panels and reduce the number of people using
> PV. Why on earth would any sensible PV company executive think that
> would be a good thing?
If it takes years of production to make enough panels to power one
plant, how can they be useful on more than a minuscule scale?
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The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.
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