Solar Days - Making Solar Energy Cool?
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It’s been suggested by some that the popularity of the Toyota Prius was brought about not by it’s technology, but by marketing - leading edge technology perception, and the gadget factor of that LCD display showing you how much energy you were regenerating made it a must have for many gadget nuts.
So could the same hold true for solar energy? There is a certain coolness factor to generating your own electricity, and just like the Prius you get a nifty display showing the amount of energy being produced by your solar installation.
However, there are few people in Europe who fully understand solar power, with many believing it to be too expensive or impractical in the less sunny parts of the continent. With this in mind, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association has organised ‘Solar Days’ this weekend in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Britain.
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‘Solar Days’ aims to demonstrate just how cool solar energy can be, by arranging thousands of house open days across Europe to allow people to view working installations at first hand. With many installations being capable of providing more than 90% of a household’s energy requirements with a range of aesthetic installation options being available in addition to significant financial incentives, it is hoped that Solar Days will help spread the message.
If solar power manages to approach the popularity of the Prius, then a significant reduction in fossil fuel power production can be achieved. Today in Switzerland, for example, fossil fuels account for only 5% of current energy production, although with growing demand Switzerland will face an energy gap of approximately 15% during the next decade. With the introduction of feed-in remuneration (bonuses for the energy your solar installation supplies back to the national grid) it is hoped that widespread adoption of solar power will reduce the need to build additional power plants and help close this gap.
Solar power clearly has some way to go before becoming a Prius like marketing success. For one thing, cooler sounding words need to be found for photovoltaics, inverters, and compensatory feed-in remuneration tariffs. However, perhaps in a few years solar panels will become a must-have accessory for the Prius owning eco-gadget fan?
Read more about solar energy on EcoWorldly:
South Korean Scientists Find Real Efficiency of Solar Systems
British Weather: So-lar, So-Good?
64-House Solar Village Saves Residents $37700 Annually
Image Credit: European Solar Thermal Industry
For Residents of California: Find out more about solar energy at Renewzle.
how to make solar cool:
Be able to integrate it into the roof in an aesthetically pleasing way… and in doing so, don’t make it so that you need to have the whole roof be solar.
and in this way, don’t have it have some obscene economically unreasonable cost. this may or may not be possible yet.
The value of solar heat for producing hot water from the power of the sun is much more cost effective, but I feel that sexing it up a bit would make it more ‘marketable’… I don’t but things because that are gadgets, but there is a mass market who do and that is more of what we need to tap into.
Planning laws need to change as well to make it much more attractive to people as well as looking at ways of making it more affordable for people.
It seems to be a mix of stuff that are holding back the change, but we are near the tipping point in the micro renewables market explosion, watch this space.
sorry typo in message above “I don’t BUY things because they are gadgets…” not ‘but things’…lol
It’s not about cool, it’s green, it’s about environment.