Posted on 01/21/2007 6:41:36 AM PST by Uncledave
What is the cost per watt for solar panels?
Please read the article again - it repeatedly mentions a rent payment on the equipment, aside from the KWH charge.
I live in east central Wisconsin, my electrical utility is
WE Energies.
You said -- "Interesting concept. Color me skeptical but I wish em' luck."
My daughter in New Mexico had to go solar; there were no "poles" going that far out in the woods. They would have had to pay for the electrical company to install miles of it (prohibitive). So, they're all solar now.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Here is their website.
http://renu.citizenre.com/index.php?p=svc_overview
It answers more questions.
what other property rights do you want to do away with?
This plan is too good to be true. In exchange for not having to put up the upfront cost, you are giving all of the cost savings to this company instead of capturing them yourself. Right now, electricity prices are at a relative high. You are going to lock in that price for the next 25 years. Meanhwile, as solar comes down in price, you are stuck, and you don't get to benefit.
Ah ha! I knew there had to be a catch!
I don*t think we*ll bother checking into this further.
Thank you:-)
Don't forget that before that supposed statement, that Edison had put his 'money' on supplying DC power to America, with a power plant every few blocks in metro areas.
I'm waiting for Tesla's broadcast power from the Earth's magnetic field.
Thanks the explanation. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere:-)
We didn*t build the house and to tell the truth it was built strictly for efficiency and definitely not for looks, but the longer we*re here the better we like it.
All those south windows let the sun shine in on a room with a brick floor. The room is 14*x42* and it sometimes gets so hot in here in the middle of the winter that we have to open an upstairs window to let out the heat.
"If you live in Alaska, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, or South Dakota, the Citizenre Solution is not an option for you yet. "
Since I have about 2 feet on snow on my roof right now, it isn't an option, period. Power generation in Alaska is a funny thing, wide open spaces, very few people.
Oh well, my RV is solar powered. Since it is only used i the summer, that seems to work out for the best.
There were genuine friendships among Ford, Edison and Firestone. They went on annual "Nature Trips", and it would be surprising if something along these lines didn't come up.
Has sort of a PC sound today, but would have been a rather natural subject to arise between Edison and Ford.
The hidden cost in this solar rental concept is that it would "strand" the local utility or muncipal power company's assets and thus regulators would eventually have to step in and assess a "transition charge" to pay off the remaining mortgages (bonds) on existing conventional power plants, transmission lines, and distribution lines. That would likely render the concept unprofitable to homeowners. There aint no such thing as a free solar lunch.
This is interesting, too: http://www.marathonengine.com/cogeneration.html and http://www.climate-energy.com/
You might find the Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC an interesting place to visit sometime.
Bump
Update on the "Citizenre" aka Affordable Photovoltaics solar panel rental scheme: A very skeptical article here from a guy in the solar biz asks a lot of questions and gets precious few answers from the company.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47419
Having to "plug in" the vehicle just moves the origin of the pollution in creating the power to another location and still removes significant money from your pocket. I just traded in my 2003 Escape 4x4 with 3.0L V6 for a 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. We purchased the 2003 used with 20,000 miles for $23,000. We traded it with 73,000 miles. The dealer gave us $13,000.
Thus far the Mariner has performed nicely. It drops into electric mode when the speed drops below 25 MPH. It kicks the engine on when exceeding 20 MPH and continuing to accelerate. Once we turn off the local arterial at 35 MPH and switch to our local street at 20 MPH, the Mariner goes into "stealth" mode. All electric and essentially silent. On a "road trip" to Idaho Falls on Thursday with freeway speeds of 75 MPH, it held almost 29 MPH. On the return trips (mostly downhill), the mileage was almost 31 MPG. That's representative of our common "road trips". Local driving is usually a 5 mile round trip that requires traversal of the 35 MPH Yellowstone Avenue on the path. Not much electric time. April 20th will mark opening day at Yellowstone National Park. It will be interesting to see how it performs inside the park. I'm expecting those extended waits for crossing buffalo herds to be more economical.
I've been in my new home in Idaho for 6 1/2 years now. My ham radio antennas are still packed. I can't get to the roof easily. The lowest edge is almost 32 ft above ground level. A solar cell array up there would be covered with snow from November to February and inaccessible for purposes of clearing the snow. My "fallback" is 10 cords of wood stacked on the basketball court.
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