Posted on 05/03/2011 8:30:44 AM PDT by bigbob
ORADELL, N.J. — Nancy and Eric Olsen could not pinpoint exactly when it happened or how. All they knew was one moment they had a pastoral view of a soccer field and the woods from their 1920s colonial-style house; the next all they could see were three solar panels.
A utility lineman installing a solar panel for PSE&G in Totowa, N.J. The utility is mounting 200,000 individual panels.
"Oil prices are going through the roof, planet is being destroyed by power plants and these people who were given access to sustainable energy are complaining about the view. Attitudes need to change or we're doomed."
“I hate them,” Mr. Olsen, 40, said of the row of panels attached to electrical poles across the street. “It’s just an eyesore.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You wanted green energy solar panels and windmills, pal? Oh, but you want them in "Someone Elses" backyard!
Then again, it being Jersey, the boys will probably have them all ripped down and for sale at the Hoboken Flea Market in a month...
Pretty gross....
I want windmills off the Kennedy compound!!
Not to mention great for target prctice...
The price of these eyesores, and the minimal energy they produce is reason enough not to use or make them. Has anyone done a study of how much energy they take to make, compared to energy used the conventional way?
Gotta love the "green" economy...if you are Chinese.
I wonder how much federal and state subsidy they get for the panels? I also wonder what the payoff period is with and without the subsidies.
Won’t take long till half are broken.
these should hold up well in the winter...LOL
Oh, those unintended consequences.
Hmmm - let's see.
$515 million/6,500 homes is $79,230 per home. The average NJ home uses about $2,500 worth electricity a year. Payback is only 30 YEARS (with 0% interest)...
Pretty insensively done.
On the other hand, utility poles and wires are ugly as well, we all kind of got used to them, but they are still ugly. You don’t see them in newer nicer neighborhoods and it makes a real difference.
I do love the eco-NIMBY backlash.
Pole Attached Solar Panel Initiative Facts and FAQs
http://www.pseg.com/family/pseandg/solar4all/FAQ.jsp
Yep.
Note they posted a “Correction” on 4/30 saying it would take a year to generate enough power to run four 60 watt light bulbs for four months straight. One has to wonder if those were CFLs or the evil old incandescents that actually consume 60 watts.
4 bulbs * 60 watts * 42 days * 24 hours/day = 241.92 kilowatt-hours = $24 per year of electricity at 10¢ / kWh (which is probably high just for the generation cost).
200,000 panels for half of the $515 million solar budget = $1287 per panel.
$1287 per panel / ($24/year) = 54 year payoff time, assuming no maintenance (ha!).
I wonder how they will fare in an ice storm?
How efficient are solar panels in NJ anyway? It’s not exactly “The Sunshine State.”
I like the math involved. $515 million to provide power to 6,500 homes. Thats $79,250 a house. Divide that up by an avg energy bill of $3600 a year (high estimate of $300 month). It will take 22 years to break even. That’s assuming not one single penny is invested in upkeep/repair.
LOL OUCH!!
Heck for this price they could put solar on 26,000+ houses (est 20k per house).
My bet is these solar panels won't last more than a few years let alone 30 years and would then need to be replaced. It would make more sense to spend $5,000-7,000 per home to replace the furnace. air conditioning and refrigerator with more energy efficient models. That would save far more electricity per dollar spent that these idiotic solar panels.
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