One million Bangladesh homes on solar power

DHAKA (AFP) – The number of households in electricity-starved Bangladesh using solar panels has crossed the one million mark -- the fastest expansion of solar use in the world, officials said Wednesday.

In 2002, just 7,000 households were using solar panels but now more than a million households -- or some five million people -- gather solar energy, said Nazmul Haq of the Infrastructure Development Company (IDCOL).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110615/sc_afp/bangladeshenergysolar

Will they help American when we ara all in the shape they were 30 years ago?

where the grid either doesn't exist or is unreliable. It's fairly easy to start small and slowly scale up with PV. In some cases, these households may only be powering lighting on a small scale, thus extending their hours when they can do things.

It's much harder to get an industrialized, wired society to adopt PV for individual homes and businesses.

This same setup is being used successfully in many poor nations where families (and even communities) still use kerosene lamps for lighting.

For places like the US, it's very difficult. The cost of supplying all the electrical needs of a typical US home using PV is prohibitive, and people can't see any way to reduce their reliance on electricity. Take the refrigerator, just as a single example. Most people have an oversized refrigerator that consumes huge quantities of power. They're used to that, and aren't interested in a minimal refrigerators. Same goes with every system in the home that runs on electricity. Central A/C, big old TV sets, all that stuff.

So, since they can't go off grid with solar, they don't do anything about it.

For rural and basic cultures, PV is revolutionary. For the US, it's just another expensive item people can't afford. This problem will haunt solar for a very long time.

http://www.lutw.org/History

They are doing exactly what we're talking about here. I met the founder at a TED-like conference called IDEAcity in Toronto about five years ago. The simplicity and effectiveness of the idea really impressed me.

it is big--25 cubic feet. It costs the same as a running one normal light bulb would for a year. Efficiency is the fastest, cheapest way to decrease energy use. The panels are getting cheaper while appliances and light bulbs use less power. No need to get off the grid, you can network with it while producing power with your solar panels during the day and getting cheap power from it at night.

The nature of the challenge is different, but in both cases it is an evolutionary process based on developing economics. Without the price reductions brought on by large scale deployment in industrialized nations, the Bangladesh success story wouldn't happen. There is s synergistic relationship where market success in any area enhances the marketability in all areas.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x300012

http://www.ieee.org/about/news/2011/15june_2011.html

Solar Photovoltaics Gaining Momentum and Poised to Challenge Fossil Fuels, Say IEEE Solar Experts

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) global installed capacity expected to dramatically increase in next decade; electricity costs from solar may be more economical than traditional energy sources

15 June 2011 – Within the next 10 years, solar PV systems have the potential to be the most economical form of generating electricity, even compared to traditional fossil fuels, say solar energy experts from IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association. To achieve this cost parity, the global industry must continue to improve the efficiency of solar PV cell technologies and create economies of scale to further decrease manufacturing costs. IEEE has several initiatives to encourage these advancements.

Solar energy is the earth’s most abundant energy resource. The rate of energy from sunlight hitting the earth is of the order of 100 petawatts. Just a fraction is needed to meet the power needs of the entire globe, as it takes approximately 15 terawatts to power the earth (1 petawatt = 1,000 terawatts).

“Solar PV will be a game changer,” said James Prendergast, IEEE Senior Member and IEEE Executive Director. “No other alternative source has the same potential. As the cost of electricity from solar continues to decrease compared to traditional energy sources we will see tremendous market adoption, and I suspect it will be a growth limited only by supply. I fundamentally believe that solar PV will become one of the key elements of the solution to our near- and long-term energy challenges.”

for a while now.

The difficulty in obtaining fuel in remote locations adds greatly to the direct costs; especially in time and effort.