a few crazy thoughts that just arrived...

[brizzo]

Originally Posted by untamed

How many solar panels would it take to generate just enough electricity to run your sump pump in the event of a power failure?

The large problem with solar power now-a-days is that panels are highly inefficient, and the batteries you have to use to store solar power are also highly inefficient. Sure, you could have a 10w panel on the roof to trickle charge a battery in the event of power failure, but it would be more practical to use a UPS.

MIT has been making huge leaps and bounds in the past months with recent discoveries on how to improve the efficiency of solar panels, and storage devices. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html .. There was also another article after this one, that detailed some type of organic battery... Similar to how plants store and process energy