Posted on 03/29/2016 2:19:40 PM PDT by rellimpank
As every ten-year-old who ever got a sweater for a birthday present has been told, “It’s the thought that counts.” That seems to be the guiding principle at the Department of Energy and the California Public Utilities Commission when it comes to solar power.
The latest example is the $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California. (Note: Solar thermal plants do not use solar panels to directly convert sunshine to electricity, they use sunshine to boil water that then drives conventional turbines.)
Here’s the story so far, Ivanpah:
Is owned by Google, NRG Energy, and Brightsource, who have a market cap in excess of $500 billion Received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy Is paid four to five times as much per megawatt-hour as natural-gas powered plants Is paid two to three times as much per megawatt-hour as other solar power producers Has burned thousands of birds to death Has delayed loan repayments Is seeking over $500 million in grants to help pay off the guaranteed loans
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
And the bills for an incompetent fool that idiots thought would make a great President. Several Trillion in direct costs.
Only taxpayers (and those who serve(d) our country) should be allowed to vote.
It's long past time we got rid of the last three words in the 24th amendment.
New York State’s asinine leftist central planners convinced themselves it would be a good idea to fund Elon Musk’s Solar City with a couple-hundred million $$ project to build a solar-panel factory for them in Upstate NY.
Crony capitalism is just fine, as long as you slap the proper politically-correct labels on it.
The libtards will never learn..... IF there is a good, effective, efficient (read profitable) idea out there, capitalists would already be doing it.
That there is no for-profit companies doing projects like Ivanpah should speak volumes.... but it doesn’t
Large-scale solar power generation is NOT ready for prime-time.
I tell ya, those Alien Jerky guys in Baker, California are missing out. They should be cranking out organic sun-dried Ivanpah turkey jerky and advertising it all up and down I-15.
It’s all about currency green.
Read later
Come on it’s at 50% that is better many government skims.
Solar Panels are not MEANT to work with any degree of reliability.
Oh, yeah, sure, they work, but they are also subject to breakage, or corroded connections, or even reduced light from cloudy conditions, and of course, the moon does not provide sufficient energy to even make a flicker once the sun sets. Supposedly, power could be stored in a series of electrical cells, but the reliability of cells is still in question, and when too much dependence rests upon exotic minerals, not at all cheap.
Every solar power system now in existence HAS to have a backup alternative, be it off the grid, or a local generator, fueled with - fossil fuels. So why bother with the obvious ornament that is solar power (or wind power, for that matter), and just build the base-line power core production units driven with Thorium-fueled Molten Salt reactors (which, I am told, may even be scaled down considerably to fit in close quarters with point of power consumption), with standby natural-gas fired generation plants, which can be spooled up and online within mere MOMENTS of a surge in power demand?
Simple answer, really, but obviously, not an easy one.
I like my solar system.
I am paying about $125 a month to pay for the system.
My actual electric bill is $5.45 a month (the minimum to keep you attached to the grid).
So my electric bill (solar payment and actual bill together) is now about $130 a month.
Before solar it ranged from a low of $185 to a high of $600.
“the moon does not provide sufficient energy to even make a flicker once the sun sets.”
The moon is only a reflector and at that a very poor reflector. Relative size to the black night sky makes it like a needle in a haystack.
“$5.45 a month”
Lucky you. What state are you in?
Florida has a meter charge of $15/month. Max array per account is 10kw of solar array. So for an average production of $150 a month you must pay $15 or what is 10% in utility overhead here.
Follow the Monet(s).
So what?
It's no worse than the phony "war on poverty," which has gone on a decade longer, at the cost of many times more tax (or borrowed dollars) than the failed solar; and both continue.
The Smartest woman and infamous unindicted felon in the U.S. wants to solar panel the entire U.S. In her first term! And it won't cost a cent!
The Money Fairy lives!
This simple reasonable alternative addresses one problem created the first half of the 20th Century: Huge generating facilities hundreds of miles (almost a thousand?) away from the consuming public.
Half of that generated power, for a hundred years, now, are lost in transmission!
As soon as I read that sentence, I stopped reading.
Strange, the mental gymnastics suckers employ to feel good about making stupid decisions.
Cognitive dissonance at its finest!
Give me the 2.2 billion dollars - I guarantee I’ll shine like the sun.
I don’t get your negativism.
I live in a state with an average of 350 sunny days a year.
The solar system cost me no money out of pocket.
It reduced my overall cost of electricity by at least 50%. That includes the monthly cost of the system. It doesn’t actually power my house. It is connected to the grid and sells power to PNM, which they credit to my bill. Since it generates more power than I use in a month, my only bill from the power company is the base cost to stay attached to the grid.
It is on the back side of my house on top of my roof (two stories up) so it isn’t even an eyesore.
It has been a total win-win.
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