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Group Members
29 Members
lilyrose	bryan jones	Sameer Vishwanathan
lasp4448	Joe Zabreznik	Major the Cat
adaddona	Ms Ice Monkey	Mark Barnett
Ashley	smittyhoo	langhugh
Tim M.	Samuel Knowlton	Antone4
Rod	Betsy	Roman Tuero
TheGochmanFour	Kathleen Malcom	fullmosey
danx111	paulsjv	Lori B
dmick	Josh Love	Kevin Ludlow
Sherri Kempf	shellrose

Name:	Mueller Megawatt Project
Community:	Mueller Community
Moderator:	langhugh
Website:	http://www.citicite.com/mueller/index.php?module=Pages&op=view&title=The_Mueller_Megawatt_Project
Description:	The Mueller Megawatt Project has evolved around the idea of discussing and implementing solar energy technologies in the Mueller development. Its mission involves: - educating Mueller stakeholders on the "virtuous value proposition" of solar energy, - promoting the advancement of solar energy technologies at Mueller, and - achieving a goal of deploying one megawatt of solar energy at Mueller by the end of Mueller's re-development.

Group Messages

Mueller Solar Picnic - Sept. 30th - 6pm-7:30pm - Lake Park

by langhugh on September 21st, 2009

Friends,

Please check the message board for details about the Mueller Solar Picnic.

Dusty

Group Comments

Rod wrote
on August 25th, 2010

Neighbors,

http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2010/07/12/daily19-Varian-Semiconductor-to-expand-into-solar.html

A short article on VSEA. Since I know some engineers and scientists working there, briefly:

Ion implantation has been evolving in semiconductor chip-making for 40 yrs. The implications of VSEA now making ion implant equipment specifically for implanting either single crystal or polycrystalline silicon are several fold, including: (a) improved efficiency of 1-2 percent (b) significantly tightens the "spread" of product efficiency at the end of the production line.

I had not known, but the VSEA colleagues explain that there has been a wide spread in efficiency of the silicon in any production line. Up to 30% of the product has to either be significantly downgraded, or simply "tossed". Ion implantation of the dopant atoms (boron, phosphorous that render silicon electrically conductive an allow making the so-called "p-n" junction in conventional (generation 1 solar cells, i.e., based on silicon) in silicon tightens this distribution to such an extent that it is likely that no product will be sub-standard.

Those are the immediate benefits. There is also the expectation (hope?) that good things happen as a new approach is applied, to further improve performance and drop costs.

I see this as an interesting reach-over from chip making to solar cell production--technology that is extremely well vetted in chip-making now (that it is timely economically) being moved into the making of solar cells.

It is a good thing.

Rod

Rod wrote
on August 25th, 2010

Michael,

An interesting tactic, to come in well below what they call the minimum of about 8K for a conventional install.

-Rod

smittyhoo wrote
on August 23rd, 2010

Thought that this article was interesting...it would be great, at least on our house since the back is south-facing, to take 4-5 of those and make an awning over the garage door and add 1kW.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/17/plug.in.solar.energy/index.html

danx111 wrote
on August 21st, 2010

AE Solar Programs
Received this yesterday - no other info:

All – Please plan to attend the scheduled meeting for residential solar stakeholders at the TLC Assembly Room.
When: Friday September 3, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Where: TLC Assembly Rm 130 , 721 Barton Springs Road , 78704
Parking will be available across the street at the Palmer Event Center . If there is a parking attendant, tell him you have a meeting for Austin Energy’s Solar Stakeholders and the meeting organizer is Shayna Lee.

Shayna Lee
AE Solar Programs
(512) 482-5451

danx111 wrote
on August 21st, 2010

Rod wrote
on April 24th, 2010

Thanks, Dusty.

The article (actually, sequence of commentaries) and then also the many comments on line about it, were quite interesting.

-Rod

langhugh wrote
on April 23rd, 2010

This New York Times debate on California's middling success with Solar PV is very good:

[url]http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/californias-solar-scorecard[/url]

Ms Ice Monkey wrote
on April 15th, 2010

We used SRE, and they did a great job with our installation. If you want to take a look, we're at the corner of Scales and McCloskey. Send me a PM if you'd like more information.

FYI, they have since been acquired by Gridpoint.

Elizabeth

robirobs wrote
on April 15th, 2010

Has anyone used SRE for your solar panel project and can you comment on your experience?

Rod wrote
on December 27th, 2009

Hi Colleagues,

I just joined this group. I missed that it had formed up!

My installation is now complete and so part of our electricity is coming from the panels. Without the learning that came from the many exchanges with neighbors and the vendors, I doubt I'd have gone forward. My family also owes thanks to Joe Zabreznik who helped to organize our street and the neighbors on it, for interacting most efficiently with the vendor.

I have a feeling that solar panels are going to come down significantly in price in the next years. This is due in part to some conversations I've had with some technologists who are working on a new method to make the type of silicon compatible with Gen-1 solar cells (i.e., silicon-based), much cheaper as a raw product. I went to my vendor and asked them what fraction of the solar panel cost is derived from the cost of silicon used. They in turn asked that question of several suppliers. The suppliers were apparently a bit cagey--would not give detailed numbers, but the answer from both suppliers was (as the vendor related to me) : A significant fraction of the cost is based on the cost of the silicon used.

-Rod

Rod wrote
on December 27th, 2009

danx111 wrote
on September 14th, 2009

Bill, give me a call at 323-5411. Dan

Major the Cat wrote
on September 14th, 2009

Hello all, Bill Mennucci at 2400 Tom Miller. I have sent several of you personal messages this morning in hopes that I can get joined into the group of about 20 homeowners who are purchasing rooftop solar. My understanding is that the deadline to commit is today so if you could help me out with info as to who I need to contact to join in please let me know. thanks--Bill

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