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Solar roofing is 2-4 lbs per square foot or 10-20 kg per square meter, but that's including all the mounting equipment as well. Solar panels must be efficient for transport, as there is a solar powered aircraft that's flown around the world!

[img width=250 height=166]http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1240x826/a_c/colar-impulse-2.jpg[/img]

Is it possible to buy huge underwater tanks and have these installed on your land? If you have a large garden for example, it could be plausible to dig it up, install a tank the size of a cargo container, put the plumbing in and re-bury it. Maintenance may be an issue down the line, but otherthan that you've got a fantastic source of multi-purpose water (although I wouldn't drink it!)

Does anyone know if equipment like this is sold for the residential market? And would you need some kind of planning permission?

[quote author=allegrif link=topic=203.msg507#msg507 date=1449155812]
If Uruguay can go from oil being 27% of its imports in 2000 to renewable energy making up 95% of its electricity in 2015, without government subsidies, why can't the rest of the world take serious note? In addition to the lack of government subsidies, electricity prices in Uruguay even fell!

[url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/03/uruguay-makes-dramatic-shift-to-nearly-95-clean-energy]http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/03/uruguay-makes-dramatic-shift-to-nearly-95-clean-energy[/url]
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A superb achievement and something our government needs to learn from. We have no excuse. We're one of the richest countries in the world and we're in a prime spot for hydroelectricity and wind power.

I prefer green roofing all the way. Not only do plants add oxygen to the atmosphere and absorb CO2, but they also provide localised habitats for wildlife as well. We're in the midst of an extinction level event, and our urban expansion is the cause. If we can do even a small thing to reverse that, we have to try. It's our duty as a people and a species to attempt to repair the damage we've been doing.

It may just be where I live, but up here solar panels on roofs are extremely common. At a guess I'd say a good 10-15% of homes have them. I think they look quite nice as well  :)

Anything that would help with the range on an electric car would be warmly welcomed I feel. A little off-topic from solar, but how about building a small wind turbine into the front of the car as well. For example, it could go where the badge of a car manufacturer usually goes and wouldn't have to protrude from the vehicle. If a car's travelling at 70 MPH, you're looking at a constant 70 MPH windflow into the turbine, which should recycle at least some of the energy?

But surely it can be stored for night-time usage?

I'd also be interested to see an easy explanation of this. Perhaps the admin can come and help us out?

[quote author=JamesH link=topic=136.msg392#msg392 date=1448627346]
I did, and I even had some nosy person give me hassle about it. Claiming that it was still illegal and that he was going to report me to Thames Water. That's one downside of living on a fairly busy street.
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Why though? How was it affecting his life at all?

[quote author=JamesH link=topic=181.msg434#msg434 date=1448899618]
In certain circumstances. The small wind turbines on many buildings do not look as much of an eyesore as some of the largers ones do. However the one's on hosues do look like a bit of an eyesore.
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How would you feel about slightly larger turbines on the tops of sky scrapers? For example, imagine the new 1 WTC in New York, then add a turbine to its spire. Do you think that would go down badly?

[quote author=LucidEnergy link=topic=17.msg271#msg271 date=1448398680]
The largest turbines can generate 8MW at maximum capacity, but most will be in the 3MW-5MW range. as for overall capacity, that depends on the size of each turbine, and the number in each farm.

Home turbines are usually around the 1KW mark, and it mostly depends on how much electricity costs for you, alongside government subsidies.

As a general rule of thumb, most turbines will generate 5-7% of the cost of the turbine per year, so you can expect to see a ROI within 13-20 years, though often government subsidies make the ROI even greater.
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That's actually quite a good return on investment, and has made me seriously consider getting one installed.

Iceland need to go ahead and do this. With the geothermal activity there they're sitting on a goldmine. All it would take would be one (admittedly very large) investment to build the infrastructure, and they could be exporting electricity by the bucket. I mean, how much energy do you think such a region has just sitting underneath it? The answer is almost limitless.

They'll never be completely banned, and I think any sensible country would do well to have a national reserve of oil even after it becomes obsolete. You just never know when you might need to use it. I hate fossil fuels and passionately advocate renewable energy, but I have to acknowledge that banning them would be a bad move logically.

Does the rug not obstruct the door though?

[quote author=JamesH link=topic=180.msg440#msg440 date=1448980829]
India runs a 2% deficit, so microgeneration (reudcing demand on the grid) will certainly help this. Their coal generation is rapidly expanding as China's did in the early 2000's and that probably won't slow down. Having said that India are very good as a percentage of electricity derived from renewables, so we can't fault them for that.
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Indeed, India's coal power expansion is something that should be a major global concern. China and India make up a ginormous amount of the CO2 we put into the air daily. There's almost no point in smaller countries like Ireland, Finland etc trying if the 1 billion plus countries are just going to continue pouring it into the atmosphere.