Gavin Hall dot org

Everyone is going green. Not only because it's the right thing to do but because it typically makes economic sense. Cars make up about 40% of the fossil fuels and most people have been focusing their energy there. Tesla has their gorgeous roadster finally making it out to customers and every other car company has some sort of all electric or electric-hybrid car in the works. Sure they are ten years late but...actually I can't think of a nice way to end that sentence.

Everyone agrees using less foreign oil is for the best. Not only is it good for the environment and the US economy but shipping hundreds of billions of dollars to the middle east each year...some of it ends up in the wrong hands.

But 51% of the fuel is used for power of houses or businesses. In this space there has been a lot of advancements with solar panels and wind turbines but no game changer like the Tesla. T. Boone Pickens, besides having the best Texan name ever, thinks he might have a plan which you can read about online.

So today I started to look to see how I could do my part. I already walk to work (ahem) so I was interested in lowering my power usage. Orlando is blessed with a ton of sunlight so it seems to be wasted for it to not be making me money.

However solar cells are crazy expensive. Like 40k expensive. There are government grants and tax subsidies that bring it down some but still for that price I might as well just drill my own oil.

Don't think I haven't thought of that.

But I am more interested in a game changer. So until people start making drive ways out of solar panels...here is what I am thinking:

A company looks for people in high sunshine areas with high power bills (Cali, Florida, etc). They will come and install solar panels on your roof for free and then sell you back the energy at half the price you are currently paying from the power company.

They would be able to buy in bulk to bring down the costs and encourage growth in the market. Plus after they recoup the costs (in about 10 years) they then will be making profit for the next 15 years (typical solar panels are rated for 25 years of use).

For a home owner you are able to start using green energy with no upfront costs and able to slash your power bills in half. In Florida the power company has to buy back any unused power so I might be able to lower costs even more.

Maybe there is a company out there that does this or one about to start. If that is the case then sign me up!

There are three separate but related advances that excite me.

First is that NanoSolar has produce solar panels that will drop the costs under $1 dollar a watt. Typically solar cells cost about $4 dollars a watt so there are a lot of cases where installing solar panels doesn't make economic sense. However at under a dollar you recoup your money very quickly which would lead to mainstream adoption of solar panels.

Second is Nano Wire batteries. This allows Li-Ion batteries to be able to hold ten times their current charge. So if your laptop gets 2 hours on a single charge it is now getting 20 hours.

Third is the Tesla Roadster. Around 250 miles on a single charge but able to prove that just because you are thinking radically with your technology doesn't mean it has to look like something that people in the 50's assumed they would see in the year 2000. Just a sexy, fast car that runs on dreams electricity.

All three by themselves are exciting but bring them together and now you are looking at being able to drive from Miami to NY and back on a single charge. Add to that the ability to do the charge 100% on your own from solar panels on your house and it seems like a perfect solution. That doesn't even factor that green house gases would go down and the USA wouldn't be 100% dependent on the middle east and all the benefits that come from that.

I don't want to sound like a smelly hippie here...but damn...this is a step in the right direction.