Hiya General, yeah just start me off, i could rattle on about this stuff all day, literally!:love:
I think there are both silicon and non-silicon approaches to flexible solar panels. Certainly longevity seems to be an issue with some types, but not all. I really don’t know that much about the ones that are currently on the market (apart from some do come with 20yr guarantees), but i guess they are still on the expensive side – even with the current high oil price.
It definitely looks promising for the very near future tho. There is a long, long list of universities, multinationals and government incentive schemes, all putting in large investements, into fighting for the chance to sell us some economical guilt-free power.:weee: Wiki is quite helpful, for background.
I wouldnt say we are out of the woods yet tho!:groucho: I think it will be lots of small steps, not a ‘silver bullet’.
The great news on the weather front, is that the (central and eastern)USA is seeing similar conditions to us. In fact, unusually warm weather has been affecting almost all of the US, Europe and Asia, roughly north of the 40th parallel. I think the Americans are slowly coming round!raaa raaa 2006 has just been confirmed as their hottest year on record (just like here, really), which certainly helps concentrate the mind!
For more info; realclimate.org, particularly the thread titled ‘EL Nino, Global Warming and Anomalous US Winter Warmth’.
Of course, we are not allowed to say ‘thats global warming, that is’, but we can say ‘welcome to the future’.
