1981
1981 Forecast: Ultimate Wind Turbine Costs of “$2 to $3 per pound”
Back in 1981, no one knew how cheap wind power would or could get.
How much would technical learning drive down manufacturing costs? How much would economies of scale help? The list of questions was long and the list of answers was short.
So, people working on wind had to make some assumptions. One struck me as [...]
SERI Archive: 40 Cents a Watt Solar Power by the Year 2000 Or Bust
Document: Advances in Photovoltaics R&D: An Overview [Downloadable PDF]
Authors: L.L. Kazmerski (Larry Kazmerski)
Date: 1981
Notes: Reprinted from the Proceedings of the 16th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Vol. 2. NY: ASME.
Task Number: 1090.00
Abstract: A summary status of the advanced photovoltaics research and development is presented. These technologies cover two broad areas: (1) Thin-film intermediate efficiency (>10%) [...]
SERI Archive: Two Forgotten Government Solar Programs That Worked
Document: A Solar Explosion [Downloadable PDF]
Authors: Bruce Baccei
Date: 1981
Notes: Presented at the AS/ISES Sixth Passive Solar Conference, Portland, OR, September 8-12, 1981
Task Number: 1122.20
Abstract: The Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Passive Solar Manufactured Buildings and Solar Home Builders Programs are developed much needed cost and performance data on solar [...]
Technological Change Does Happen, a Reminder
It’s impossible not to laugh while watching this local San Francisco news broadcast. It tells the story of “the first step in newspapers by computer,” the delivery of copy via Compuserve to people like Richard Halloran, whose tagline, in place of say, citizen or CEO, is “Owns Home Computer.”
There’s something poignant about the last scene [...]
Inventing Green by Alexis Madrigal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
