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.
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.
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.
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.
bkmk
The answer is clean burning natural gas from the great states of Louisiana and Texas. lol
So, have any of you guys heard/read about this hydrogen technology, specifically using H2O. The technology agitates (simplified Texas Tawk) water, causing the hydrogen to be released from the water with the byproduct of the process being...oxygen.
I saw a video years ago about a retired radio station owner seeking a treatment/cure for cancer. His cancer.
Anyhow, he marched down the dock behind his home in Florida, filled a test tube with saltwater. He then placed the test tube in a jig between a high frequency signal generator.
When he energized the freq. generator, it beamed through the saltwater, apparently agitating the molecules of hydrogen/oxygen. He then lit the top of the test tube and poof...intense flame burned. Check out the video. I believe there have been several universities who repeated the experiments with greater control/success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8utkoK2DhA
The worst part in our area is that they’re taking up good farmland...now lost forever. Natural gas....and we have plenty here in upstate is the smarter use of our assets.
Even in MO, I noticed winter solar output was very low. Same thing as getting vitamin D. In winter, you ain’t. We would get some charge between 10-2 at best in winter but it wasn’t near as strong as 10-2 from mid Spring to mid Fall. Of course Summer is the best since the days are longer. Then you could get a good charge from 9-3. Longer if you had panels that track with the sun. Overcast but not rain clouds in summer are better than sunny days in winter.
Sun angle matters and Minnesota is pretty far from the equator.
Then there’s wind. Maybe 10% of the planet is good for wind. There’s a Scottish guy who builds his own turbines and happens to live in a region of Scotland that has good wind. The Scoraig peninsula. He builds them himself because it’s the only way to get a decent ROI.
Water is the best. 24/7/365. Not ocean wave generators.
The “green” virtue signaling has to stop. If Republicans ever regain control, they need to legislate the topic of green energy. States that mandate green electricity should be required to augment high demand needs with only green generated power. It’s ridiculous they can posture as green but in a pinch, consume as much extra fossil electricity as needed. To get a green certification for an EV, the home source of the power should be a hookup billed at green generation pricing. In the wild rechargers should also bill at green generation pricing.
As a well-educated person, AND a HAPPY user of residential solar power, with REALISTIC, fact-based expectations in place PRIOR to writing the check ...
I can tell you residential solar power with a battery does exactly what I want it to do:
1. Flat-lines roughly 75% of our electricity costs.
2. Operates as a silent backup generator in the event of a grid failure
3. Runs my 110V circuits every night using no power from the grid. (Battery discharges about 20% at night to run these circuits)
4. Reduces SLIGHTLY the cost of electricity we *do* buy from our EMC.
The solar power hype IS out of control from many sides. I get that. But to dismiss it out of hand is a fool’s errand.
PS, we live in GA and snow cover is not an issue.
Solar electricity sucks as a means of efficient energy production, there is nothing efficient about it. HOWEVER; I installed 12kw of solar on my roof with battery backup. I knew it would not be efficient with close to 10 years of payback time involved. In the fall and spring I produce more electricity than I use and in the summer where we have more hours of sunlight there is a pretty substantial portion of my electricity bill taken care of by my solar cells but I would hate to have to depend on it for all my needs. Some people do but it is a balancing act.
As kind of a prepper I like knowing that my freezers will keep humming no matter what but there is a cost to that security. As far as utilities using money they could be spending on reliable production for solar I think they should not. Solar is neither reliable or efficient.
Zealots are destroying America in the guise of promoting renewale energy
There can be no co existence
Solar power isn’t useless but it also is not the miracle cure for our power needs that its supporters say it is.
I guess snow will eventually slide off of a sloped panel (although any ice under the snow will take a while to go away). For flatter installations (which won’t give you much in winter anyway) I’m not sure I would want some teenager slamming a snow shovel on those panels, as I doubt they’re made for that.
So you do your best to lightly brush off the snow from an area you can reach, while your neighbor on the grid simply walks into his house after work. Kind of gives you that same “why” feeling as buying a Tesla. Lots of fun talking about it, but your neighbor gets to walk inside after work while you have to drag out a heavy cord after work and plug it in.
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