A summary of what I have learned is that solar energy engineering is in a phase of rapid development. It is profitable business and there is still quite a way to go before plateau performance levels will be reached. Real progress is being made in reducing the costs of photovoltaic collectors. Issues of inverting and cleaning up the power produced and integrating it with the grid appear to me to have been largely solved. Reliability and durability of photovoltaic panels seem to be very satisfactory. Costs of these units appear to be decreasing quite rapidly. Efficiency values are still increasing, but are already at levels that I consider very good. Furthermore, concepts such as combining photovoltaic collection and thermal collection or using concentration with photovoltaic collectors are subjects of current research.
Continue reading My Conclusions from the Phoenix Energy Sustainability Conference.
