Posted on 08/31/2011 9:07:22 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
Yosemite National Park has installed the largest solar energy system in the whole United States National Park System.
The system will provide 672 kilowatts which is 12% of the park’s yearly electric power requirements.
The system installed by Suntek (doesn’t that name make you just want to hug a tree?) consists of 2,800 solar panels “tastefully” integrated into the existing architecture of Yosmite’s administrative and maintenance compound.
A 500 kilowatt solar canopy covers the parking lot, a 100 kW rooftop section serves as a collection system on top of the warehouse and an additional 72 kWs wrap the building’s outer walls.
Nevertheless, before you jump up and shout “Holy renewable energy!” consider the dark side of this “money and energy saving green policy.”
New meaning to the term “Lifetime guarantee”
The system cost $4.5 million and over the next five years the Park will receive $700,000 in energy rebates to offset the cost of installation” meaning the total price will ONLY be $3.8 million!
But this is the good news.
Here’s the part we’re not supposed to focus on: The Obama Administration paid for this project with $4.4 million for his “New Dealesque” American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,and the yearly savings will be $50,000.
Relying on the lack of education government schools provide, the “Park News” press release ignores the fact that at that rate it will take until 2088 to break even the unlikely event that the original equipment lasts that long.
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
Wow. It will pay for itself over the next 100 years!
What a deal!
Did they have to cut down any trees to improve the solar exposure for these solar panels?
The Regime’s idea of economic stability. Finance a buddy who owns a solar company, hire union workers to install it and claim thousands of new jobs have been created!
UNLESS of course it involves the oil industry. Then greenie campaign contributors might become a bit too cranky to GIVE!!!!
Which was a massive disaster
Same kind of math applies to the ‘tax credit’ a business will get for hiring a new employee—especially one who has to be trained & has no experience at all.
Tax credit: $3000
Minimum time on your payroll: 1 year.
At $10 per hour, salary would be $20,400.00 for full year.
Add in Soc Sec / Medicare employer costs: $1560.60
Add in Workmen’s comp (varies by job & state) so guessing at 20%-—could be much higher—so add $4080.00 for WC.
Add in state unemployment insurance—say 5% on first $7000==Add $350.00
Add in Federal unemployment, which is currently .8% for first $7000 of gross earnings==$56.00
This totals $26,446.60.
All of which is totally dependant on the type of job because workmen’s comp for a roofer is over 100% of gross payroll in California.
Also- cost of another desk-chair-computer—phones-parking costs-travel costs if a salesman, etc—all kinds of hidden costs!!!!
SOOOOOOOOOOOO-—I will get a $3000 TAX CREDIT if I spend $26,446.60 !!!!
What a deal!!!!!
That would take me 8.81 years to recover that expense for one year alone!!
What if I don’t have a profit NOW that costs me $3000 in Federal Taxes????? I have nothing to apply the CREDIT against!!
What if AFTER I have paid out over $26,000.00 for a new employee I absolutely don’t have a profit to tax at all?
These figures do NOT even take into account the cost coming over the horizon of OBAMACARE for employers!!!!!
Ask me-—slowly & carefully with very small words-— if I would not rather just pay myself another $25,000.00 & not even get into the factors of hiring a person who has not got experience & has not got MY work ethic???
This type of project is going on all over CA. Money loosing..tax eating monsters. It is hard to prove that they will even recover the energy costs that go into building them.
I visted Yosemite many years ago and it was grand. You could get anywhere in the Valley by car. We were in a convertible, and it was like being in God's Own Cathedral. I went back in 2003 and you couldn't drive freely in the park anymore. A lot of the best roads, parking areas and overlooks were "reverted to nature" and were accessible only on foot. My wife can't hike or horseback ride so we spent most of our stay sitting in the designated "public areas" far from the best scenery. Green ruins everything.
You are right about this stuff going on all over CA. I’m in the Bay Area on the Peninsula. Our town passed a $46 million bond issue that included some “energy” work. As soon as the bond passed, they were tearing up the high school parking lot to install one of these “canopy” solar panel power plants. Now we have this hideous monstrosity covering up the once-beautiful view of the football field. I’m sure the payback on this beast is in the 100 year range, if it will last that long. NPV, ROI, Payback, IRR — all of this is meaningless gibberish to innumerate liberals. What matters is feelings and hugging an earth goddess.
Makes me absolutely sick to see our town bespoiled by this crap and our tax money absolutely wasted on this sh!t.
You’d never believe that all of our towns, cities, counties, states and feds are totally broke the way they spend money with wild abandon.
No, but -hint, hint- the Half Dome will henceforth be known as the Eighth Dome...;-)
“Wow. It will pay for itself over the next 100 years!”
If only that were true. But, the government money used to build this craptastic solar marvel will incur interest which will actually be more than the 50k per year in supposed savings. Stupid liberals will lose money on this project every single year.
The truly criminal part of this is that there is no mechanism applied to keep track of the parts and labor necessary to keep all those panels working at their peak (18%) efficiency when needed most.
Make that "break even point" somewhere south of 2288!
By the way, how is the Jimmy Carah II White House roof thingie coming along?
Have we reached $100,000,000 yet?
The ugly hidden truth is that under ideal conditions the life span of solar panels is max ten years. Any longer period of amortization becomes negative.
But.
With no maintenance make that about two years.
With mediocre maintenance, perhaps four.
There is no free lunch in the solar world.
By the way, I assume that in the Yosemite environment, the exposure to actual sunlight is 30% of each day.
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