NOVEMBER 2008 was not the sunniest of Novembers we’ve had, but the 15 Sanyo panels on the roof continue to deliver bijli (‘lectricity) to the house and to the UK’s National Grid.
Here’s a screen grab of what happened in November 2008, and because the system has run for not too far short of two years now, we can contrast this with November 2007. Was the 30th of November so dull that no light shone from the south? Surely not.
Hang on – according to the November 2007 screengrab below, there wasn’t a 30th of November last year either. Perhaps there is a bug in the Fronius software?
Anyway, facts are facts. Since the system first started, we have been in credit with our electricity supplier – it owes money. And the National Grid scheme pays cash for the contribution the panels make. It is a daft idea installing panels unless you really go for it – it’s obvious that you have to place them in the right place, and polysilicon is at a premium right now, so they still remain expensive.
Perhaps with the panic in the semiconductor market, there will be more polysilicon available. Undercapacity fabrication plants (fabs) are very expensive to run. It’s a crying shame folk in places not on our latitude but which see the photonics more can’t have more of these panels on their roofs – futile green gestures are not nearly enough to make a difference. ♥
Our energy monopoly won’t allow personal contributions to their grid. I live in the southeastern US. Obviously in cahoots with the politicians. Now they want to bill everyone heavily for two Nukes to bring on line. Even with all the troubles people have now. I could have worked from home for decades now, but there is no shaking the office mentality, where I exist to do the work and prop up 10 or 15 “managers” who do nothing, but make all the dosh. Meager raises at best intermittently spaced multiple years apart; each year is like another pay cut. All new hires are payed higher, too. I’d hate to imagine what it would take to force change.
Thought you guys in the US were anti-monopoly. All the utilities here were privatised during the rule of Maggie Thatcher – course she’s still alive, and I’d like to know what she feels about nationalising banks, because most of ours are, now…
Well NOT Really :+
Oh I understand as they tell me that the taxpayers did make money the first time Chrysler was bailed-out…
Rumsfeld turned the M-1 tank program upside down. He mandated that the tank be redesigned to incorporate the turbine engine. GM had used a more conventional diesel engine. The two tanks had undergone months of head-to-head trials at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. GM had won.
The M-1 was never just a weapon; it was also a bail-out package. But enough about the War On The Economy…
The monopoly of franchise, is what utilities here are.
They control the grid or the matrix. All powerful. You might allow any other payment to be late, but you don’t mess with the electric company.
Supposedly answerable to a public (appointed) commission, which rubber-stamps most every price hike that the privately owned, publicly traded conglomerate wishes to impose.
The US Republican ignominy of lobbyer worship, mandates that the needs of the enterprise outweigh the interests of the French-backed revolutionaries at large.
Pardon me French aposiopesis, mate; but I thought this would be bleedin’ oblivious there as we do.
At any rate, it shouldn’t be worth losing one’s head over.
Let them eat brioches. Frankly, I prefer a good pork pie delivered with eclat and sincerity, like honest Logitech delivered its 1 billionth mouse exactly at the time the moose was 40 years old… call me absurdly cynical if you like.
No. I’d have to call you the birthday boy, day after next. Interesting the INQ’s comments are closed. I guess they didn’t want to be over-run with all the well wishes coming in.
Happy Birthday, Mike!…
Titanium Man …
And Then It Occurred To Me!
You Couldn’t Be Bad
Magneto Was Mad!
Titanium Too!
And The Crimson Dynamo?
Weh, U’ll be round later for the whole posh Panchang.
Give me a ringo when you get in town… a star for trying?