Re: The Involved vs. The Apathetic -- odds anyone?

Hey Chris,

  You've hit the nail on the head!  Big enough, but there is almost no such thing as too big once the capacity to manufacture "the first one" is in place. 

  See I'm not thinking about heating or storing energy.  Both add significanlty to the TCO and operating expense.  Could it make sense in the future? Sure, but not today.

  Could I design a one-off system, sure, but you can't afford it, no one can.   It's a lot of $$$ for a modest return.  Everything else you mention about the barn design is cost effective, a unique system isn't.

  The cost for a demo is > 90% of the cost of building the machine to make them all.  That's not money well spent.  See the technology is mature, and no one can question whether or not it will work, it will.

  So for "Can we build something... ?" Yes we can; No it's not economical.    I've met a lot of "inventors" developers, and designers who would
promise anything for the sake of being busy, and that's all they've
accomplished... They've kept busy, delivering over-priced,
under-performing technology, while growing fat & lazy.

  We need 10 friends with $25,000 to make a single descent 'demo', for  a proof of the already proven concept at $25/Watt... or 50 friends with $100,000 to tool up panels and engines, and hit the ground running at $3/Watt installed.

  This is classic manufacturing.  Any descent mechanic can build a car from the ground up, if he has the tools...  But, each and every single car will still cost $150,000.  Once we build the factory, then the systems are affordable.