Blog Phase 6
Article 1
Ethan Goffman.(June 2012). Making Solar Affordable: Solar Leasing is Taking Off-But Does it Make Financial Sense?. The Environmental Magazine. (4/12/13)
Summary
This article had to deal with solar panels and the different ways companies are trying to sell them. The article mainly focused on leasing. The author was trying to determine if this way of buying panels made more sense financially. He concluded that it really depends on your situation and your personal preference. You should always contact different professionals to help you determine which way best suits you.
CRAAP Analysis
Currency- June 2012
Relevance- I think this is relevant to my topic because in order to figure out how natural gas will effect the solar industry, I also need to figure out what the industry is doing now to make investing in these systems more appealing.
Authority- He is a writer for the Environmental Magazine. He is also on the executive committee at the Sierra Club (Environmental Organization)
Accuracy- Based on my knowledge he seems to be pretty accurate with the information he is presenting.
Purpose- The purpose of this article was to determine weather or not it made financial sense to lease a solar system instead of just buying and owning it.
Response
I felt like this article brought up some good points. Although I would prefer to buy solar panels instead of leasing them from a company, I can see why it may be attractive to some people. It will allow people who have always wanted solar but couldn't afford it to get it. This kind of thinking will help the solar industry because if the payback is instant, as far as, you are paying less than what you would pay for your electricity with no upfront costs than there is no reason to go with natural gas technology.
Article 2
Sean Matlis. (July 2010). Cheaper be the Dozen: Making Solar Energy More Affordable. University of Illinois. (4/8/13)
Summary
This article was talking about new processes that have been developed in the making of PV cells. The cells it is creating are 40% efficient instead of the 20% of the standard panel. These new processes make a more efficient solar cells cheaper and faster than was previously available. By cutting down on the costs of production dramatically they hope to drive down the prices on solar.
CRAAP
Currency- July 2010
Relevance- This is relevant to my topic because the improvements in solar technology make it cheaper and more efficient. As the prices continue to go down and the efficiency's are improved it makes the solar market a lot more competitive with the natural gas industry.
Authority- Press release from the University of Illinois
Accuracy- This article is pretty accurate with the information it is presenting. The only problem I had with it is that although efficiency's are improving the type of solar cell they are talking about that are only used in space are only used there for a reason. That reason is because they contain arsenic which is deadly and would not be safe to be installing on homeowners roofs.
Purpose- The purpose of this article is to inform people of a new process which allows manufacturers of solar cells to create more at a single time making the prices of this technology decrease.
Response
This article was interesting. Even though the cells they were talking about couldn't be used on peoples houses I believe they could find a way to use this same process on other solar cells in order to make the prices go down. Prices on solar PV technology has decreased substantially in the past 6 years. In order to make solar more competitive with natural gas scientist need to continue to develop more processes that are cheaper and more productive. At the same time as efficiency's go up I believe soon solar will be more attractive to a wider group of people and the industry will really take off.
