Comments on: Obama’s Green Elephant in the Room: Oil http://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/the-elephant-in-obamas-clean-energy-goal-oil/ Wed, 22 May 2013 22:56:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: billtoe http://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/the-elephant-in-obamas-clean-energy-goal-oil/#comment-589774 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:43:47 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=293449#comment-589774 Alex, I claim that in 10 years:
1) The cheapest way to produce power will be with PV (un-subsidized and in most of the country).
2) Electric Vehicles will be cheaper to buy, much cheaper to maintain and much cheaper to energize, than ICE vehicles.
I’m confident about this, but have no interest in arguing about it. Lets just wait and see.
(Personally, I already replaced the engine in my truck with an electric motor and batteries, and I’m charging it with the solar panels that I installed. I’m a little ahead of the curve but both projects were fun, and easier than I thought they were going to be).

]]> By: robert http://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/the-elephant-in-obamas-clean-energy-goal-oil/#comment-587871 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:51:16 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=293449#comment-587871 I am not sure about solar power for every house in terms of powering your house and your electric car, but why not mandate solar power for every water heater like they do in Israel? that would go a long way to reducing our power consumption and is well within our reach

]]> By: Alex Taussig http://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/the-elephant-in-obamas-clean-energy-goal-oil/#comment-586874 Sat, 05 Feb 2011 03:59:17 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=293449#comment-586874 Mark,

Not that simple, unless you want electricity prices to increase by 4-5x.

http://solarbuzz.com/facts-and-figures/retail-price-environment/solar-electricity-prices

We subsidize solar power to be price competitive in some areas, but that subsidy either comes out of your electricity bill, or your tax bill. At $5-6/W installed, solar is too expensive today to satisfy the vast majority of our needs.

When it comes to energy, cost is the first priority. There are lots of sexy solutions that seem like a good idea, but when it comes down to it MOST people really don’t want to pay more money for the same electrons.

]]> By: Mark http://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/the-elephant-in-obamas-clean-energy-goal-oil/#comment-586550 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:36:45 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=293449#comment-586550 Simple.

Put solar panels on EVERY house. Make them large enough to power the building AND charge electric vehicles. This quite doable (I’m already doing it at my house).

Massive amounts of manufacturing + recent research discoveries will drive cost down and solar efficiency up.

Put them on the office buildings too. Wouldn’t that give you most of your power consumption?

Then all you have is an energy storage problem (for nights and bad weather), and there also solutions in the works for that.

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