Solar Panels Rise Pole by Pole, Followed by Gasps of ‘Eyesore’

NY Times ^ | 4-27-11 | MIREYA NAVARRO

[thackney]

enough power to run four 60 watt light bulbs for four months six weeks straight

[Publius6961]

Insufficient information.
From the pics in the article I think these NIMBY's need to back off.
Reminds me of the idiots who would buy a lot, build a house, then spend tens of thousands$ attempting to prevent the person who bought the lot next door from building their house.

If you need to spend money, buy yourself a clue.

[MNDude]

wow, ALMOST a quaint little town.

[6SJ7]

Besides being hideous, these panels appear to be supported by very little except a bracket. With a good load of snow (it does snow in NJ), I can see one of these stupid panels snapping off and crashing thru the roof of a parked car. They will also make swell practice targets for BB guns, baseballs, and the occasional tossed sneaker.

[warsaw44]

Folks up in Mars Hill, Maine are losing their minds over the noise from the wind mills. The affect on light is also sending them all to the lunatic asylum.

[cookcounty]

The Air Force Academy is just finishing a solar project variously claimed to be either 3 Megawatt or 6 Megawatt, depending on which reportage you go with.

For this the US government gave #18.3 million to Colorado Springs Utilities. I have no idea how efficient that is, seems expensive to me, a million bucks buys you 322kw when the sun is shining, or 161 kw if the lesser 3Mw is accurate. Is this a good use of $$$$?

By the way, to those of you saying "no Defense cuts," there are Billions of dollars in projects in the DoD that have very, very little actual connection with actual "national defense."

ALL the US military facilities seem to be into Big Solar conversion,these projects are also at Nellis AFB and Fort Carson.

[abigailsmybaby]

Do you mind if I post your comment on my Facebook page?

[de.rm]

Many aspects of reality corrupt "who's got the next brown bag payoff' NJ politico's could care less about.

This whole deal was just a scam to line some high up hideous pockets.

Be careful where you park this winter.

[FrankR]

[hoosierham]

Wind-powered generators and solar panels make sense only in very limited applications distant from convential power sources.

But faacts never deter liberals' wishful thinking!

More effective but still horribly expensive would be solar cell roofing installed directly on each home IN THOSE AREAS WHERE THE SUN SHINES ENOUGH TO BE EFFECTIVE.

[bfree]

This is classic “liberal feel good “ garbage. What a waste of money!!

[headstamp 2]

Here’s the money quote. Typical government mandated waste.

“The solar installations, the first and most extensive of their kind in the country, are part of a $515 million investment in solar projects by PSE&G under a state mandate that by 2021 power providers get 23 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.”

[count-your-change]

They don’t want to burn trash for electricity or coal, or go nuclear, or install solar hot water heaters or better windows and insulation or any other thing that would help so now the ugly and useless gets forced upon them.

I tell ya, it breaks my heart. (no. no, not really)

[Publius6961]

Has anyone done a study of how much energy they take to make, compared to energy used the conventional way?

What conventional way? Your concern is misdirected.
I agree that most of these are a collosal waste of money (usually taxpayer subsidized,) but not all.

If you have energy to spare, lean on Congress and our retard president to allow drilling and actually building more nuclear plants.
At least in the Western US, there is probably less energy produced the conventional ways than there was 20 years ago.

Importing electricity, however produced, from 1000 miles away is stupid. Half of it is wasted in "transmission losses."

[Always Independent]

Wonder why they couldn’t get residents to have them installed on the roofs of homes. They’ll probably be stolen over time.

[longtermmemmory]

we paid for them, this was a federal grant and tax write off.

The utility does not want to PAY for placement rights.

[Balding_Eagle]

A huge field of these money wasting eyesores are being erected just north of Colorado Springs, right at the enterance to the Air Force Academy.

All I can see is $50 million wasted.

[de.rm]

On closer inspection you'll notice a little "ducky" antenna mounted on a cigar box sized transponder unit,

Each pole now has send & receive communications capability, what's up with that?

[cva66snipe]

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?

Evidently from what I've read a considerable amount of energy is needed to make the panels. A company is supposed to be locating in my area. The news article stated the solar panel manufacturing plant power requirement would equal that of a nearby TVA hydroelectric {dam} generating capacity for production. If this is true it likely would take decades to recoup the power required to make them per panel.

[Brookhaven]

At the end of the article: Correction: April 30, 2011

An article on Thursday about the reaction of New Jersey residents to the installation of solar panels on utility poles omitted the time required for one panel to produce enough energy to light four 60-watt bulbs around the clock for six weeks. It is one year, according to Public Service Electric & Gas, the utility installing the panels.

Notice even this tries to make it complex to hide the numbers. To put it more simply:

The solar panels produce enough energy to continuously light a single 20 watt light bulb.

In other words, they don't even produce enough energy to light the street lamp they are attached to!

But the govt. is playing for it (either by a direct subsidy or huge tax break), so they'll put them up.