Free Republic

Independent physicist John Droz, Jr. alerted me to the website of Deep Green Resistance (DGR), an international environmental organization that calls for the total destruction of what it refers to as the “global industrial economy,” a.k.a. capitalism. Given the group’s hard-left credentials, its call for dismantling capitalism throughout the world is not surprising. What is surprising is that in an unusual show of progressive candor, Deep Green Resistance openly acknowledges what skeptical scientists have been saying for more than two decades: that renewable energy is a government-backed hoax that enriches big corporations -- and green energy investors like Al Gore...

Going solar isn’t necessarily any protection from California’s new “planned” power outages, and local residents and businesses are enduring a lot more than just a few inconveniences. Bloomberg’s Chris Martin has a story on California’s troubles with one of my favorite headlines ever: “Californians Learning That Solar Panels Don't Work in Blackouts.” Apparently, many of California’s would-be Earth-savers had no idea that just putting solar panels on their roofs doesn’t mean they’ll have power when PG&E switches it off. As Martin explains:

We’ve spent plenty of time here talking about the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, particularly as it pertains to ethanol blending. But what’s less often discussed is that fact that many states and cities have been implementing their own standards. The majority of these involve mandates that a certain percentage of their energy be supplied through green, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar while weaning themselves off hydrocarbons. What’s often left out of the debate about states adopting these sorts of energy portfolios are the questions of how effective they are and how much they wind up costing. Bloomberg...

State and local governments in California have made housing there far more expensive than it needs to be.  Developers rightly complain of regulations at both state and local levels that make housing construction unreasonably difficult and expensive.  California's cities are filling up with homeless people living on the streets or in encampments whose nonexistent sanitary facilities and rampant drug abuse make them public health dangers. As of last week, a new and burdensome regulation has made constructing a new housing unit even more expensive, by at least $10,000, the lowball estimate of the bureaucrats administering the new regulation, or up to...

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent stock prices soaring, public records show. SunEdison told regulators last week that it is eyeing bankruptcy under the weight of $11.7 million in debt. But in late 2014, investors were bullish on the company, which manufactures and operates solar and wind power facilities. Its 2014 purchase of wind energy company First Wind “further bolstered the reputation of the company,” wrote one market-watcher at the time. “Perhaps...

SunEdison is now eyeing bankruptcy, but Paul Pelosi invested right before a 2014 stock rally House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent stock prices soaring, public records show. SunEdison told regulators last week that it is eyeing bankruptcy under the weight of $11.7 million in debt. But in late 2014, investors were bullish on the company, which manufactures and operates solar and wind power facilities. Its 2014 purchase of wind energy company First...

Morocco has turned on its massive solar power plant in the town of Ourrzazate, on the edge of the Saharan desert. The plant already spans thousands of acres and is capable of generating up to 160 megawatts of power. It's already one of the biggest solar power grids in the world, capable of being seen from space. And it's only going to get bigger. The current grid, called Noor I, is just the first phase of a planned project to bring renewable energy to millions living in Morocco. It will soon be followed by expansions, Noor II and Noor III,...

Energy generation by wind and solar farms could reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change. A new climate-modeling study, published in the journal Science, finds that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms in the Sahara Desert and the neighboring Sahel region — areas particularly desirable for such farms because of their vastness and lack of inhabitants — would increase local temperature, precipitation and vegetation. ..." “Our study is among the first to model the climate effects of wind and solar installations while taking into account how vegetation responds to changes in heat and precipitation,” Dr. Li said.“Previous...

The EU has completed the biggest photovoltaic solar field in Gaza, the European Commission announced on Thursday. The field will provide 0.5 Megawatts of electricity per day to fuel the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant. The EU-funded Southern Gaza Desalination Plant currently provides drinking water to 75,000 inhabitants in the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates. With the new energy field and new investments foreseen it will eventually reach 250,000 people in Southern Gaza by 2020. Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, commented, “Limited energy supplies in Gaza are one of the main challenges when improving access...

Saudi Arabia wants to pour $200 billion into solar to build the world’s largest solar project. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund and SoftBank Group Corp. of Japan jointly announced plans to build a solar project that is staggering in size – 200 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. That would be about 100 times larger than some of the largest projects in the world right now. “It’s by far the biggest solar project ever,” Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank said at a news conference Tuesday in New York after signing a nonbinding agreement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). The...

Weeds poke listlessly from the flat, rocky earth as the temperature climbs to the mid-90s. On a cloudless March afternoon, the blue horizon stretches out uninterrupted, as if even birds are too weary to fly.On this unforgiving patch of southern India, millions of silver-gray panels glimmer in the sun, the start of what officials say will be the biggest solar power station in the world.When completed, the Pavagada solar park is expected to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 700,000 households — and the latest milestone in India's transition to generating more green energy. Long regarded as a...

NEW YORK • Chinese suppliers flooded the US solar market with panels at the end of last year, as customers sought to avoid paying President Donald Trump’s 30% import tariff. Fourth-quarter deliveries from China were almost 11 times higher than in the first nine months of 2017, according to a report last Friday by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Manufacturers also hauled panels and cells across the border from Mexico, Canada and other countries to beat the import duties that were announced last month. (please see link for full article)

President Trump wants Chinese solar panels firms to make more of their products in the U.S. -- and they appear to be getting the message. A week after the Trump administration unveiled tariffs of up to 30% on imports of solar panels, one of China's biggest manufacturers announced that it plans to open a new plant in the U.S. JinkoSolar said in a statement Monday that its board of directors had given the go-ahead to "finalize planning for the construction of an advanced solar manufacturing facility in the U.S." The statement suggested Jinko's decision was tied to the new tariffs,...

At the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, work is almost finished on a huge new solar plant that's set to provide one megawatt of renewable power for the local electricity grid. The new plant sits just a hundred metres (328 feet) from the Object Shelter, nicknamed the "sarcophagus", a sealed metal dome designed to prevent further radiation leakage from the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The blast that occurred on 26 April 1986 remains one of two most disastrous nuclear accidents in history alongside Fukushima, but the installation of these solar panels offers hope that...

Just days after US President Donald Trump called for further isolation of Iran, a Norwegian solar company signed a deal Tuesday to invest €2.5 billion in the country over the next five years. “Norway is fully committed to the JCPOA (nuclear deal), and this is proof that we have taken the opening very seriously, and we will see more investment very soon,” Norwegian ambassador Lars Nordrum told AFP. He was hosting the signing at his Tehran residence between Norway’s Saga Energy and Iran’s Amin Energy Developers, who will work together to install two gigawatts of solar panels in multiple sites...

A modest proposal: We've all heard about "shop local" and "get your food from local farmers, not distant corporate farms." Lots of people have apple trees in their backyards. Often they can't begin to eat or give away all the apples. In the meantime, big supermarkets sell corporate apples for one dollar a pound and up. I propose that people with backyard apples be able to take them to the supermarket and sell them to the supermarket for the same price at which the supermarket is selling apples. Furthermore, they should be able to take them at any time and...

Turn off the lights during next Monday morning’s solar eclipse, and while you’re at it go after the “vampires” that may be sucking $100 worth of electricity a year from your home. That’s the advice from state utility regulators regarding the astronomical event that will darken skies across a broad swath of the United States as the moon passes between sun and Earth, disturbing animals, drawing crowds to the darkest areas where the eclipse will be total and temporarily curbing output from solar power facilities. To offset the loss, the California Public Utilities Commission is urging people, businesses and institutions...

Solar energy is not always a fraud. If you live off the electric grid, and you have a reasonable amount of sunshine, solar power, backed up by batteries, can be a good option for getting a modest amount of electricity. It will not be cheap electricity. Solar is good for powering equipment in remote locations. It is excellent for powering spacecraft. It is good for direct heating of swimming pools. Passive solar in the form of buildings designed to utilize sunshine for warmth and light can save energy. But, do not think that it is advisable to put solar electricity...

Axios is reporting that President Trump suggested putting solar panels on the new Wall with Mexico. The article wonders where the idea came from: Where this idea might come from: A proposal to cover the wall with solar panels was among those submitted when the U.S. requested designs earlier this year, according to the AP. Companies winning contracts and asked to build prototypes may be announced this month. That’s one place it might have come from. But I consider it an obvious idea, which means the President might have come up with it himself. And when I say “obvious,” I...

Southern Nevada may pose more of a dirty little problem for some solar plant developers than they realize or are letting on. Solar photovoltaic developers say not to worry about how much water their plants will use because they need only enough water to run the office bathrooms and wash the arrays of panels a couple of times a year. But people who live near proposed plants or maintain solar panels in the desert guffaw at that last bit and are willing to bet the panels will need to be hosed down more frequently. Dust on solar panels can decrease...