Jim Main wrote: > I recently read that the energy required to produce a solar cell was more > than the cell would ever actually produce within it's lifetime. From the press release, Cypress's system will produce enough electricity to power 300 homes, with an expected lifetime of three decades. The system seems to be rated at 335kW, and these particular cells produce 10 watts/square foot, so we're talking about 33,500 square feet of photovoltaic roofing tiles. Each tile seems to cover about 8 square feet, so there are 4200 tiles on the roof. 30 years' power for 300 homes 2+ years of a home's power ----------------------------- = -------------------------- 4200 tiles tile Think the manufacture of one tile uses more energy than what's consumed by a house over a period of two years? I don't know, but it seems unlikely. What you read was probably true for solar cells in pocket calculators, but I doubt that it holds for this sort of application. If it did, these solar cells would always cost more than they'd save, so there wouldn't be much of a market for them. -Andy === Andrew Warren -- aiw@cypress.com === Principal Design Engineer === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation === === Opinions expressed above do not === necessarily represent those of === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics