Cool Earth claims to have technology, called Inflatable Solar Concentration, that will reduce the price for solar energy to roughly $0.20 per Watt within three years (for comparison purposes, check out my posts below for the solar stations that are producing it at $2 to $3.20 per Watt). Wow.
So let's say you had a really big back yard and you wanted to buy some balloons and create your own power plant. Could you make money? Let's run the numbers:
So we raised $200k, bought 2,000 balloons, strung them together, and we're cranking out a Megawatt. Assuming they capture energy 9 hours a day, we're selling 3.3 M kWh back to the grid. At 7 cents per kWh, we make our money back plus a profit in year one. And each successive year is pure profit.
Is it just me or does this sound too good to be true? I'm going to give these guys a call and see if I can buy some balloons.
1 comment:
The following article about Cool Earth:
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0708-ces.html
is much more in-depth than the one you've linked to and would be worth adding.
In addition, I think it would be worth pasting the following block quote into your post:
Cummings's lofty objectives are supported by an impressive background. Earning an M.S. degree from Caltech in aeronautics and his B.S. degree from Penn State University in engineering science, Cummings returned to Caltech for his Ph.D in aeronautics and chemistry. There he also won Caltech’s top honor, the Francis Clauser Prize, awarded "for opening new avenues of human thought and endeavor," as well as Caltech's William H. Ballhaus Prize for his thesis work on lasers. After spending eight years at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Cummings founded Cool Earth Solar.
While their claims do sound too good to be true, Cummings background might actually give it some credence.
Anyway, I hope this is real because it would be a major step forward.
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