Thứ Bảy, 5 tháng 1, 2013

Is Solar Energy Cheap?

Arguably solar energy is anything but cheap, which has always been seen as one of the fundamental reasons why the advancement of solar energy applications has been limited over the years. Ironically with fossil fuel electricity sources now seen and recognized as being environmentally unsustainable in the medium to long-term, combined with a continued sharp increase in electricity costs fuelled by a seemingly inexhaustible global demand for energy, solar energy appears to be back in demand.
But what about the cost and does the concept of cheap solar actually exist? Industrially the advent of recent collective solar panels developments to capture solar energy still come with an expensive cost tag. The one real source of cheap solar however is found close to home and is mainly domestic in nature. Solar cooking using a solar cooker not only clearly personifies cheap solar but actually takes the principle one step further. Solar cooking over time, assuming one cooks with a solar cooker on at least a semi-regular basis, actually puts money back into your pocket, literally.
After all if the ultimate business model is to have nil fixed costs and an entirely variable cost structure, than solar cooking and solar ovens have to be an excellent example, albeit on a small, domestic scale.
With even the more sophisticated solar ovens not costing more that $500 (and in most cases a lot less than that) it simply becomes an exercise of how much you save on each meal you cook using a solar cooker. If you want to bring some science and good financial sense to the equation attempt to calculate what your monthly electricity bill is for cooking your meals, then calculate an approximate cost per meal and then extrapolate that cost through the initial once-off cost of the solar cooker and you can quite literally calculate how long it will take to pay off the solar cooker.
Anything beyond that point puts money back into your pocket in the form of a saving of electricity you would have used to cook those meals with a conventional oven, stove or microwave. Assuming you cook at least a couple of meals a week in a solar oven each week then the exercise really does illustrate cheap solar, in fact very cheap solar to the extent that it actually makes you money!
Lee Elliott is an Author on Solar Cooking and related solar cooking activities. As an Author on the subject, he is at the forefront to provide solutions to information related to solar cooking and using solar cookers.
For more articles on Cheap Solar Energy or to get your FREE Mini Course on Solar Cooking go to http://www.solarcooking.mobi.

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