Solar Power International Conference

Hector Guevera in Clearwater has invented a "Thermal Electric Generator", a solar energy panel that converts heat rather than sunlight to electricity that is far more efficient than the current photovoltaic cells in use, and at a lower cost. He is well past the prototype steps as far as building a provable device. He is looking for additional funding and grants to be able to mass produce these panels.

Here is his contact info:

NuEnergy Technologies Corp.
1677 El Tair Trail
Clearwater, Fl. 33765
727 741-3569

hguevara@nuenergytech.com
www.nuenergytech.com

I'm sure that he would be happy to be interviewed in any NPR program.

By the way, he was in the group which installed the solar system on the WHITE HOUSE during the Carter administration.

I have lived "off of the grid" on solar power for over 5 years. I work in a desert community that averages about 300 days a year of sunshine and I advocate to others in the area to go one step further with their prospective solar systems and break the tie to the grid with batteries and backup natural gas generators. My question is concerning those off the grid are unable to receive any tax incentives or Gov subsitites of any kind. Really wrong.

Environmentalism is all well and good, but industry and government are colluding to play us for suckers. Solar energy itself is a very clean, the environmental footprint for manufacturing solar panels is immense and irrecoverable over the lifespan of that solar panel. Think of the amount of energy required to manufacture that solar panel, refining the silicon that is used as the base of the solar cell to say nothing of the horrendous chemicals used to manufacture that solar cell. The cost of solar panels is huge and not recoverable in terms of the amount of energy that the cell can produce. I think wind power may be also be problematic as the steel required to build a wind tower requires vast amounts of energy that will never be recovered in terms of the power the wind tower will produce.

Industry always telling us to buy the newest automobiles and appliances as the latest are vastly more energy efficient than the previous generation but that is more crock. Considering the vast improvements in efficiency in our appliances since the original energy crisis in the early 70s, we should be able to fly a toaster to the Delta Quadrant beating Captain Picard's Enterprise-E by months. The amount of energy needed to melt the steel to make a toaster to say nothing of the other components of that toaster oven. The energy efficiency achieved in the few years since the last model which you discarded for the latest model is dwarfed by the carbon footprint of manufacturing that toaster, automobile, refrigerator, or clock radio. Industry doesn’t care about anything except selling their product and improving their bottom line. Our damnable corrupt government has long, long regarded its function as promoting industry and profits at the expense of the people, and our world.

There are more examples where industry and gov lies to us, but won't fit into this message. Also excuse me if it is garbled as I had to severely edit to fit it into the limit on characters.

I am listening to today podcast, I do have a solar panel system (7Kw) installed on my house and I do have net metering. What the speakers were missing to say, is that contrary to what they do on some European countries in which they pay you for whatever extra energy generated by your solar panel system, in California (and I think is all over the US) if I at the end of the year my system generated on excess on what I used from the grid the Power company (in my case SEC) does not pay you a penny (they get a free ride on my investment).