There’s a money trail here somewhere - a big one.
In 2012, 17 ‘solar energy zones’ were created, targeting some 450 square miles of land in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. I wonder if this land has to be acquired within a set timetable, in order to qualify for government guaranteed loans?
http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2014/02/worlds_largest_solar_power_pla.html
The Ivanpah plant is rated at 393MW and claims to produce enough electricity to power “140,000 California homes” for 2-3 hours during peak hours. Solar electricity generated will cost about $321 per MW/hr. Electricity produced by gas and coal costs about $100 per MW/hr.
The 100MW plant slated for King County in 2015 isn’t really worth a mention other than the land theft, since output is generally 20% of the rated MW.
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/08/100-mw-solar-power-plant-for-california-central-valley/
The two Carizzo Project plants combined will rate at just 900MW, so about another 400,000 “California homes” for 2-3 hours. That’s nice, except California has 10 million housing units.
The Carrizo project intends to ‘set aside’ 26,000 acres for ‘protected zones’. The Tonapah project has set aside even more. This is now land only the in-crowd will get to enjoy.
Who facilitated the ability of these solar firms to buy all that excess land, at such a price that they’re more than happy to give a big chunk away - as long as it isn’t returned to the farmer or rancher or miner?
The government is guaranteeing billion dollar loans for low-wattage farms, and gets free land kicked back out of the deal. The county also gets in on the real estate when the solar companies ‘help the county’ buy land. The environmentalists get fees just for joining every lawsuit, and, win or lose, they also get special privilege of right-of-way for their ‘studies’.
It would appear the smelt, rat, turtle, owl and lizard, are, in fact, red herrings hiding a river of greenbacks. imo.
Absolutely love your post. I think we’ll find enough racketeering, bribery, corruption, high crimes and treason here to sink a dreadnought.
bttt