The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months by pbhjpbhj on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @06:00AM (#11627281)

Seriously though has anyone crunched the numbers on rainwater storage for microgeneration in a domestic setting.

Could I efficiently use excess solar to pump water in to a house roof storage area and generate electric from that?

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Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months by cninja on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @08:33AM (#11627836)

They crunch the numbers here: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/pump-up-the-stor...

The energy in one gallon of gasoline is equivalent to the potential energy stored in 13 tons of water one kilometer up

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Re:The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months by jhallenworld on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @07:05AM (#11627496)

The Tesla Powerwall has 6.5 kwh = 23.4 M joules.

Gravity potential energy = mgh. Suppose pool is 10 meters up, then you need 239,000 kg of water = 63K gallons or 8400 cu ft. This is a huge pool: 29 ft. x 29 ft x 10 ft.

You could use the city water supply: borrow water through a turbine at night, and return it during the day :-)

Or have pool up very high, for example on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean:

http://inhabitat.com/crazy-home-carved-into-a-coastal-cliff-...

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