Solar panel and energy crunch forum

Up until recently, solar panels have been the ultimate green product and have been labelled as such up until today.

What happened today?

Our UK government has declared that the low carbon economy will cost each and every one of us, on top of the existing problems facing the UK:

1. Reliance on Russian energy

2. Global peak oil and market turbulence

3. Dwindling North Sea supplies

4. Only 2 weeks national backup supplies of gas 5. Rising energy pricing (wholesale and retail)

The UK residents now have to pay for the transition to a lower carbon economy through your already high bills.

Why people install solar panels

Investment, with the tide of overwhelming higher energy pricing over the coming years, people are choosing to spend their money on a technology which will insulate them from the waves of high energy bills accumulating on the horizon.

A superior quality solar technology will easily last you 30 - 40 years.

Solar panels are no longer a green product they are a long term investment product' for your home or your children, which ever way you want to look at it.

Seems the golden age of the industrial revolution is coming to an end and are now on the slow gradual decent into another dark age type existence. Nothing is for ever and humanity has gorged itself on the finite oil reserves and now has to drink the last reserves slower to make it last.

I wonder how long it will be till country's like Russia will stop selling and start conserving it for their own people. You would not sell your sell your last bottle of water in a desert. Same goes for oil/gas.

Then we're certainly in trouble.

I foresee a time in the future when mankind will sit around their campfires and tell stories of men walking on the moon, and massive iron birds touching the clouds and beyond. No one will believe them as it will only be a myth or legend passed down from generation to generation.

Remnants of a magnificent ancient, industrial civilisation will remain, but like the aztec ruins of today, the lives and meaning of it is inhabitants will remain a mystery.

The oil age will have passed, and the earth shall begin it is healing process.

Many now realise that the fossil fuels, which have powered our world through two centuries of unprecedented growth in both population and wealth, will be largely phased out within the next half century because of the limitations of feeding billions of humans with an oil intensive lifestyle and of course global heating.

Many people like me are preparing for the energy crunch which will undoubtedly come. You may have seen the first symptoms of this already.

The fight for human civilisation, is won!

We have reached the pinnacle of human-ability with the amount of oil available to us.

The challenge of keeping our civilisation has now begun!

Solar panels have been around for about sixty years with efficiency ever increasing with them, and now seen as one of the future sources of energy for businesses and homes.

Solar panels are an active energy source meaning they harvest sunlight and convert it into power. The modules consist of cells called photovoltaic cells and are arranged in a grid which collect solar energy and convert it into electricity or heated water.

Solar heating panels, also known as thermal collectors come in two types either evacuated solar tubes or flat panel collectors. These types of collector look decidedly different from photovoltaic panels and will provide your home with most of your hot water requirements.

Solar panels harvest solar radiation from the sun, converting that energy into electric power. Solar cells within the module, function in a similar way to a semi conductor. Once exposed to sunlight the diodes produce energy from sunlight into an AC. An inverter then changes the current to a DC usable current for your home.

A more scientific explanation is, photons hit the surface of the solar panel knocking electrons out of orbit, releasing them.

The electric fields in the cells pull these free electrons in a directional current to the metal contacts in the cell which generate power. The more cells in a system, the more electrical output are produced.

The primary reason for installing solar panels is that they are a renewable energy, so your home is not dependent on increasing unaffordable fossil fuels. It is a non polluting and causes no harm to the climate.

Home owners will benefit directly as it is a free energy source once installed.

You can get your initial installation costs back extremely quickly at the moment.

Life time of twenty five years, so you can only accurately calculate the value, if you know what the cost of a KW H will be average over that time. With oil and gas prices set to soar, it is pretty certain that electricity prices will move in sync. In fact without any feed-in tariffs the pay back should be around 12 years. So there you are with another 12 years plus of totally free electricity while all your friends are paying twice todays prices and that is all tax free.

You can wait for the solar panels to come down in price, though, by waiting this long you will see them go up another 2% with VAT, The Chinese are getting a stranglehold on the rare earth material needed in PV panel production, so do not expect to manufacture prices to come down in the future.

Even as an oil industry insider, I think its sensible not to waste freely available clean energy from solar panels. Hydrocarbons (oil) is a finite resource, and their use extends far beyond energy production.

Even accounting for its production, a solar panel, be it PV or hot water system is an energy net gain. As their popularity rises and they are accepted as the norm by the public, then the prices will drop, and their efficiency will increase further.

Solar radiation is absorbed by panels or tubes on the roof. The heat generated are transferred to the hot water cylinder giving you up to 70% of your hot water needs for free. You only need one panel or tubes for every 2 people in the house, and the panels can installed directly into the roof to be level with the tiles giving a Velux window style look like mine.

My solar panel system was installed last year quickly and efficiently with no fuss or mess.

The resulting generation of electricity was better than estimated resulting in improved savings and financial returns. As a result, I would recommend having solar installed to anyone.