DarkBlack
Elite Member
So... a multi-thousand $$$$ battery for the same function as a $200-$800 gas or oil tank. Hmm...What a bargain.
Wind Turbine ********. Just opened the mail and seen the plan for three massive units
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MossRoad
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YIKES! What was I thinking??? :drink:
MossRoad
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What are you talking about????
CalG
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Yup, I've got a nuke plant that just shut down about 5 miles from my door step.
There is 100 acres that will be inaccessible for then next 10,000 years.
There is 100 acres that will be inaccessible for then next 10,000 years.
Sysop
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A lot of that was paid for by our tax dollars... residential customers were getting mega tax write offs for installing anything solar. The FTA also gave away millions of dollars to transit authorities across the nation to implement solar projects. Here in WV, we have no "big cities" by typical standards. To speak of one I'm personally familiar with, the FTA put taxpayer dollars into a grant, to be matched with other local taxpayer dollars, to install a multimillion dollar solar power station on the roof of a local transit authority estimating 372,519 kWh per year of output. Most of which they use (about 323,000 kWh), but what isn't used is put into the grid. Taxpayers bought it, 100% and outright. Taxpayers paid to install it, 100% of the cost. Taxpayers aren't paying less for the leftover solar energy the transit authority is pumping into the grid. Price per kW remains steadily increasing. The money saved on the electric bill at the transit authority? Pay raises, extra office toys, whatever. It didn't decrease the amount they use out of the taxpayer's budget...
Is it a good thing? In my opinion and in spite of everything I said above, mostly yes. I'd much rather see them spending my tax dollars on projects like this, than bailouts of poorly ran companies, higher government salaries at the higher levels of office (none of the folk at the local transit authority are what I'd call overpaid), or handouts to junkie-pillheads. Most individuals will never be able to afford these technologies and the technologies will never get better if nobody is buying them. It took a long time for solar panels to make their way out of a calculator and into other devices (I'd reckon ya gotta sell a lot of calculators to pay for any R&D? :confused3
. Today's solar panels are better than ever before, and the rapidity of their progress is growing more with the more applications they become suitable for. I think one day it will be a viable source of power in many places. I also think it will be a long time. Is it worth it? I have no clue, but most things that are worth it don't come easy...
CalG
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The weakness of Silicon based solar panels, is that there will never be enough active area available to meet any sort of reasonable contribution to our total energy needs.
The spectrum of photo-emissivity is much to limited. A hybrid photo collector must be developed to take advantage of the entire photo-electric spectrum from solar radiation.
ZnS, and Germanium in concert with Si. Then "roof top" installations would compete with "solar farms" as viable energy sources.
For me, roof top solar-thermal collectors that would supply domestic hot water would be a significant first step. Forget electricity, just make use of the HEAT!.
The spectrum of photo-emissivity is much to limited. A hybrid photo collector must be developed to take advantage of the entire photo-electric spectrum from solar radiation.
ZnS, and Germanium in concert with Si. Then "roof top" installations would compete with "solar farms" as viable energy sources.
For me, roof top solar-thermal collectors that would supply domestic hot water would be a significant first step. Forget electricity, just make use of the HEAT!.
Redneck in training
Elite Member
The beauty of PV is simplicity and reliability. Heat collectors are expensive and the system associated with them (relative to PV) is complicated.
And the oil/gas industry does not get any federal subsidies or tax breaks ???
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Subsies, no. Tax breaks yes, just like I do. Do the oil companies PAY taxes, yes they do.
Last time I checked, if I install a PV system in NC I will get 65% of that money back from NC state and the Feds. Eventually. If that 65% subsidy went away, what would happen to the solar power business in NC? If we took away all of the tax breaks the oil companies and everyone else gets, which I am in favor of doing, will Exxon still be in business?
Later,
Dan
May not be a subsidy, but the tax breaks are certainly big enough.
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