$1.1bn wasted on solar power

[Dakota_Roberts]

Hey people, concerning heating and cooling couldn’t one use short geothermal wells to utilize the constant temperature? One would replace the 80°F indoor air with 60°F earth air, do this all summer and then when winter comes swap the 45°F indoor air with 60°F earth air and then heat that.

 

[estesbob]

MORE than $1 billion of taxpayers’ money was wasted on subsidies for household solar roof panels that favoured the rich and did little to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, a scathing review has found.–Tom Arup, The Age, 11 November 2010

Despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, Solyndra, a maker of solar panels in the southeast San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont, will close one of its manufacturing plants, lay off 40 permanent and 150 contract workers, delay expansion plans of a new plant largely financed with the government-guaranteed loan and scale back production capacity more than 50 percent. Despite the hype and tax money, Solyndra seems unable to compete with Chinese manufacturers, whose prices are lower. This is the latest bad news for the company touted by Mr. Schwarzenegger and President Barack Obama as one of the green industry’s supposed shining lights. – Editorial, The Orange County Register, 11 November 2010

There is a 30% tax credit for installing solar panels but of course they are so expensive only the rich can afford them. They mainly go to heat peoples swimming pools and hot tubs.

 

[valentino]

DawninTexas: China makes us pay a tax to sell them our goods?Sounds like their saying were doing you a favor by buying your products.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

At the library, found a fabulous magazine on solar power.

Apart from the high cost of solar power, the amount of tinkering you have to do to keep it working is unreal.

If you are not super-handy or able to spend hours fussing with your solar electric/heat system, then you are doomed.

Home Power magazine

www.homepower.com

There is just no way to make solar work, in real life.

And the amount of maintenance is huge, staggering.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

There is a 30% tax credit for installing solar panels but of course they are so expensive only the rich can afford them. They mainly go to heat peoples swimming pools and hot tubs.

Absolutely right.

And the VAST majority of systems are in places like Florida, where they have lots of sun and the retirees have the time to fuss with the systems.

 

[didymus]

This reminds me of the natural gas commercial that talk about it’s energy efficiency, because 100% of it is used for energy. When it comes to electricity from the power plant there is lots of losses that occur before it can actually get to the point of your outlet. I guess when it would come to an electric car it would have a lot of the energy loss too as compared to keeping the energy stored chemically in gas.

Unlike you gas hogs.

 

[buffalo]

The volume of solar panels manufactured is ramping up and they are becoming more efficient. They will soon be more affordable.

Many Catholic schools received grants to install panels and save $4,000 per year on electric bills. The cost of the install was around 250K so that is a very long payback. The ROI will get better.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

The volume of solar panels manufactured is ramping up and they are becoming more efficient. They will soon be more affordable.

Many Catholic schools received grants to install panels and save $4,000 per year on electric bills. The cost of the install was around 250K so that is a very long payback. The ROI will get better.

Out of curiosity, is anyone actually keeping track of the actual amount of electricity they get out of these units on a daily basis and maybe keeping a web site with a graph showing how the performance varies each day so you can see how it does summer vs. winter, sunny vs. “lake effect” and such.

All factors should be included. Including the daily electricity consumption from “the grid”.

The library has a subscription to “Home Power” Magazine www.homepower.com and the solar systems seem extremely complicated. Requiring a LOT of maintenance.

The “daily track keeping” should also include maintenance, trouble shooting, washing the collectors, and “shoveling” or otherwise removing snow and ice.

It would make an excellent science project for the school kids of all ages and grades. For generous extra credit.

 

[buffalo]

Out of curiosity, is anyone actually keeping track of the actual amount of electricity they get out of these units on a daily basis and maybe keeping a web site with a graph showing how the performance varies each day so you can see how it does summer vs. winter, sunny vs. “lake effect” and such.

All factors should be included. Including the daily electricity consumption from “the grid”.

The library has a subscription to “Home Power” Magazine www.homepower.com and the solar systems seem extremely complicated. Requiring a LOT of maintenance.

The “daily track keeping” should also include maintenance, trouble shooting, washing the collectors, and “shoveling” or otherwise removing snow and ice.

It would make an excellent science project for the school kids of all ages and grades. For generous extra credit.

The units themselves have meters and they record the accumulated KWH’s produced as well as the daily and current production. I do not know if anyone is actually keeping track other than the lower bill.