Obama to visit Fremont solar firm on Calif visit

Mercury News ^ | 5/21/2010

[KeyLargo]

Obama to visit Fremont solar firm on Calif visit

Posted: 05/21/2010 01:12:10 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO—President Barack Obama plans to visit a solar company in Fremont when he comes to the San Francisco Bay area for a fundraising trip next week.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday that Obama is scheduled to tour Solyndra Inc.'s solar panel manufacturing plant Wednesday and speak to workers about jobs and the economy.

The president plans to headline fundraising events in San Francisco for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

[fremont_steve]

It’s time for me to “Duck and Cover!”

So he is coming to visit the Solyndra Factory that is being built here about 1/2 mile south of the NUMI factory that has been closed. The company received a $535 million loan from the feds. So he’s coming here to see all the jobs his $535mill bought him.

The only GOOD news lately is that Tesla is going into business with Toyota to build $50K electric sedans??!!?? Here the government has put in $50mill of a $150 million that Tesla is using to buy the plant from Toyota.

So ALL of these jobs are artificial and are heavily subsidized by our taxes.

[malos]

Does anybody have any links they can post on the viability of solar power? IE how much it is per kwh as compared to nuke and other sources. I have friends raving about there investments in panels on there houses.

[Hoodat]

I have friends raving about there investments in panels on there houses.

Do they also rave about using solar panels on their cars?

[subterfuge]

Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico is filling up with oil and the people in Nashville are still digging out. Can’t Obama just send someone else from his regime?

[BenLurkin]

Hussein only does the front work. He is a “face” and only that. His handlers will have to find someone with actual abilities to do the actual work behind the scenes.

[JudgemAll]

If this crappy stuff of unviable “green baby” were so much the future, then why would billions of $ in investment and Zerobama advertisement would be necessary?

This is another one of Zero’s communist’s locked heart homosexual “cock block yourselves for me” and “little retardo soft anus people like me”.... all the while I can enjoy obsene fame.

Yeah, they work for the little people and not for gain, but they love sex and all this crap, hiding behind “homosexual sobriety”. My arse. AIDS infestated impotentas’ revolution of PC borrowing and squating goes on.

WHO THE FRACK ARE THESE WEIRDOS?

[Gasshog]

If the Klown In Chief isnt out raising money for the Rat Party on our dime he’s sluming in our White House destroying our liberities with E.O.s.

[Sparky1776]

How efficent it is compared to other forms might not be the issue. Whether we agree with government rebates or not or forcing utilities to purchase power from them might make them good investments for some - especially if someone else is footing the bill. Now there are companies willing to lock in current rates for a decade & longer.

Photovoltaic (solar electric) systems running at peak efficiency are about 17% efficient. I think solar thermal (hot water) runs somewhere around 60% efficient.

[CitizenUSA]

I did a quick search and most of the links about coal versus solar are more concerned about ecology than efficiency.

I worked on a small solar power generation system for my home a couple years ago. Ignoring reduced efficiency, payback versus power off the grid was over 20 years. My calculations were based on all of the solar equipment working at full efficiency for this period, a highly unlikely scenario. Plus, I was going to build this in Oklahoma, a state that is comparatively well situated for solar.

Solar takes up a lot of real estate and is (still) one of the least efficient means of energy production. That doesn’t mean a small emergency solar generator isn’t worth the cost, but I wouldn’t advise it as a primary source.

[kabar]

$50K electric cars—they should sell like hotcakes.

[KeyLargo]

Obama's Heavenly Body To Replace the Sun

[KeyLargo]

[KeyLargo]

Several venture-backed companies were early recipients of the stimulus-funded loan guarantee program. Fremont-based Solar panel maker Solyndra - which raised $600 million in venture capital — has been a benefactor of the program to the tune of $545 million. It's building its second factory with the money.

Read more: VC running DOE's loan program - San Francisco Business Times

[truthguy]

As soon as the Federal Government and the state of California pull the plug on subsidies, the solar industry will implode. Solar Power simply cannot survive without subsidies. It's intermittent and unpredictably intermittent. It's only good for about 6 hours on the best of days. It's also fantastically expensive. You cannot have a sustained economy with solar. No businesses can absorb the cost of electricity @ $0.50/KWH. The industry will pack up and leave.

These solar companies are frauds. The venture capitalists are nothing more than clever sharks. They want these companies to go public with an IPO. They will use their buddies in the financial sector to drive up the price of the stock and then they will sell out with a big profit. The solar companies will never make a profit but the venture capitalists will make a killing. They did the same thing in the dot.com boom of the 1990’s. How do I know this? One of my friends worked in the venture capital business and he described to me how the scam works. He said the next business that I would see this in would be the solar industry.

[fremont_steve]

I can’t speak authoritatively - just tell you what I found out in investigating it for my house. I pay an average of $330/month (varying from $200-$700 over the year.)

It has been estimated that I need between 6.2KW and 7.2KW to take care of my needs entirely. If I went for a “no money down plan” it would cost me $315/month. If I were to purchase the system after rebates - $38K for the 6.2KW plan. It would take nearly 10 years to pay this back.

Now - a friend is working for an roofing company that just went into the business in the last year and he informed me that the real issue is sizing the system. Since we have a progressive rate structure here in Fremont (surprise anyone since this is the land of Pete Start?) I pay $0.50 for the majority of my power, and only $0.07 for the baseline KW.

So the trick is to size your system to get you reliably into the baseline amount. So I could likely get away with a 2.5KW-3.0KW system and lower my bills to $30/month not counting cost of the system. Payoff is more like 5 years (about how long I figure on staying in the current house..)

With these numbers - I’m not going to bother because I’ll never enjoy the fruits of the investment, but only break even if I’m lucky.