Posted on 12/31/2021 4:10:30 AM PST by george76
You sometimes see newspaper headlines to the effect that, say, a “50 megawatt solar power plant” is being constructed. But you shouldn’t count on getting anything remotely approaching 50 megawatts of power from such an installation. Energy expert Isaac Orr explains:
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that production from solar panels plummets in the winter. The graph below shows the percentage of electricity generated by solar panels in Minnesota compared to their potential output. This percentage is called a capacity factor in electricity-industry lingo.
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Isaac’s analysis applies specifically to Minnesota, but bear in mind that while northern states get fewer hours of sunlight than southern states in the winter, they get more hours of sunlight in the summer. And note that in the best of times, solar panels don’t produce electricity anywhere near half the time.
Minnesota solar panels are most productive in June and July, when they produce almost 30 percent of their potential output. Unsurprisingly, solar panels produce far less energy in November, December, and January, where production capacity factors are seldom above 10 percent.
That is pathetic. We spend billions of dollars on solar panels and transmission lines, and in winter, when we need energy the most, they work only around ten percent of the time.
Another reason for falling productivity in winter is snow cover. Even a thin layer of snow on panels can lead to significant reductions in electricity generation from solar panels, and as Ralph Jacobson, the founder of IPS Solar, has said in the past, it is too expensive to pay someone to clear snow off the panels.
Process that fact: solar panels are such a lame energy source that when it snows, it isn’t worth it to pay someone–high school kids, probably–to shovel them off.
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We can see the impact of snowfall on electricity generation in the graph below. In February of 2018, solar panels produced 14.6 percent of their potential output, and in 2020, they generated 17 percent. However, in 2019, solar facilities produced just 6 percent of their potential output, because that year had one of the snowiest Februarys on record.
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Why in the world would we rely on an energy source to power our grid that may work only six percent of the time? The answer, of course, is that we don’t. The same utilities that charge ratepayers billions to construct solar and wind facilities also charge them billions to build natural gas power plants–plants that actually work. And the overwhelming majority of the time, it is natural gas, not solar or wind, that is providing electricity. The unreliable (i.e., usually useless) “green” sources are just for show, and for fleecing ratepayers.
So far, most voters have been snowed by “green” energy propaganda. Or that is what they tell pollsters, anyway. But the day is coming when voters understand that they have been had by one of the biggest cons in world history.
If it were only ratepayers getting fleeced, the word “voters” wouldn’t be there. Ask T-Bone Pickins.
It’s simple: we all go into hibernation during the winter, like bears. Then, we’ll wake up in the spring, and there’ll be lots of clear skies and solar power.
My 82 year old dad was just scammed in a solar power scam yesterday. If you have elderly parents, alert them or keep an eye on them. I am so ticked off, they constantly come after him because of his age and his inability to become suspicious, he trusts everyone.
They cold called him yesterday and he invited the “salesman” to come immediately over who did, and told him the solar panels will cost nothing and it will drive his electric costs down 90%. So he gives the guy his social security number to “check his credit” Why if the panels cost nothing? And then he signed this contract. So now I’m up early trying to figure out this mess. I assume I have to call my lawyer see what protections he has.
You need to jump on it, many states have a 72 hour period to void contracts.Time period may vary with state.
Um, so what about Africa, The Mid East, Asia etc then? With their countless hours of heavy sunshine all year?
Minnesota is not the world.
If it were only ratepayers getting fleeced, the word “voters” wouldn’t be there. Ask T-Bone Pickins.
I second you, the SEC is supposed to protect the consumer from a need be large monopolistically enabled service provider allowed to exist with certain government oversight.
The problem is the giverment and wokeness brainwashing.
Regards,
Planning for a fulltime RV retirement, I have been looking into solar for mobile installations on a Class A/School bus. YOU CANNOT get enough panels on an RV and enough batteries IN an RV to reliably supply 100% on your energy needs. Which means you still need a generator to top off the batteries when you hit a stretch of “poor solar” days/locations. AND the cost of the panels and associated gear is prohibitively high.
Solar is an out-and-out scam.
Thanks!!!
Thanks. What if he (or myself) cant get anyone on the phone from this “company” to cancel? I might have my lawyer contact them
good post.
also explains why the corrupt USPTO (owned by CCP and
other rouge agencies/countries) will NOT EVER
allow clean energy systems.
There should be accountability here, too.
there’ll be lots of clear skies and solar power.
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But at only 30% of rated capacity at best.
In sub-Saharan Africa the plan has been for decades to keep the various tribes at war and without much power, having to choose between having a single low wattage bulb lit or refrigerating medicine.
Have you been to sub Saharan Africa before?
I have and you are not right. As at now anyways.
Even under perfect conditions, the solar panels in use today can only convert a maximum of 30% of the sunlight that strikes a panel into electricity.
70% of the sun's energy is in wave lengths that cannot be converted to electricity by current technology.
Wind isn’t much better. There when you don’t need it, and not there when you do need it. And like solar, it has to be backed up by something reliable - like gas or coal.
Mostly gas now days, since our overlords have deemed coal to be public enemy #1.
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