Replies to post #2820 on Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc (MMMW)

[wmyers4u2]

sounds like strong competition, but at the same time the more they are accepted as common components the more commonplace they become and that could be a good thing.

[Solarman]

The biggest barrier to acceptance of solar trackers is maintenance. I think that issue has been resolved and that is my opinion based on my 40 years of experience in the finance business and 20 year of it with renewable energy. In the wind industry , there was a requirement of at least one year 's worth of testing to make sure all the parts worked well and if certain mechanical or structural issues had to be reworked. ( Many companies require two years of quality testing). The cost of the final product is sometimes less than the cost of the unit before testing began. The most important issue is not having built hundreds or thousand of units to face a high maintenance cost on the sales in any product that did not go through the testing process. The problem with being a public company is investors believing a product can be on the market in the next month or two like computer software. Fortunately, the prototype to product process is less with solar tracking/solar than wind power. The liability of fixing thousand of sold products is the big reason that Kenetech and New World Power went bankrupt within a year after going public. The companies were the two biggest and earliest wind giants in the 1990s. That need to be careful during the prototype to mass production product is a big reason that I feel better about product delays than taking the serious risk of putting a product to market too quickly.

[Solarman]

One additional benefit of solar tracker is the ability to provide power during peak time in locations where the transmission and distribution lines are approaching full capacity. With the delivery of more power at late afternoon, the need to add electric line capacity can be avoided.