Keeping Taxpayers in the Dark (Ithaca Solar Panels lose $1 million)

Federal Review ^ | Tuesday, June 13, 2006

[Behind Liberal Lines]

ITHACA NY--Once again proving that social engineering and taxpayer money shouldn't mix comes this news from Ithaca, New York:

In 1999, the Tompkins County Board of Representatives voted to install solar power on the roof of the country library. (In cold, dark upstate NY.)

It will be paid for with $551,025 of County funds -- an addition to the library capital project -- and $455,514 in grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy.

So, how much power has their system generated since $1,006,539 was spent to install it?

460,124 kilowatt hours (kWh) since it was installed, in July of 2001.

On the open market 460,124 kWh would cost a commercial user (assuming an astronomically high average price of $0.10 per kWh) about $46,000.

Only in The City of Evil could spending over a million dollars to generate at most $9,358 worth of electricity per year make sense.

Source for generation info
http://www.powerlight.com/mypowerlight/
User Name: library
Password: solarpower

(hat tip: the Comedian, who told me to go ahead ahead and "steal" his work)

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

City of Evil bump:

[Mikey_1962]

How many days of sun can there be in Ithaca?

[JamesP81]

Plenty of light as long as the Eye of Sauron remains.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

There is no such thing as sun in the City of Evil. :)

[KarlInOhio]

And that doesn't even include cleaning and repair costs for the panels.

[sionnsar]

So it'll pay for itself in 100 years, assuming no degradation or failures in the solar cells. Now if they had invested that million...

[theDentist]

Using my brief calculations, $46000 in 5 years = $9200/Year.
At a cost of $1,006,539 / $9200 annually = 109.4 years. (Not including maintenance sosts, devaluation of the equipment, and fluctuating Kw energy calculations).

So, the sucke- people of Ithaca (City of Evil) will begin to see a profit in January, 2116.

[ikka]

Yes, but te NYSERDA money was FREE! They got back about 9% of the cost so far if you don't include the money taken at gunpooint from you and me.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"How many days of sun can there be in Ithaca?"

Both

[RightWhale]

Like the greenies say, every little bit helps. What it helps with isn't exactly clear.

[Uncledave]

With cost of capital more than 1% ($10k per million) it will never pay back.

[50sDad]

You have to remember, we are dealing with Liberals. Money is not important. It's how good we all feel about the project.

[jiggyboy]

I'm a big fan of alternative energy, but it still has to be worthwhile economically. A million bucks at 5% interest is $50K a year for electricity forever. If it is indeed 10c a kWh in Ithaca, that's 500,000 kWh per year. I yield the floor to anybody from that area or anybody in the library biz to say if that's more than that library needs or not.

[PzLdr]

And since it's not their INDIVIDUAL money, they feel REALLY good.

[finnman69]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they installed these knowing that a future building would be constructed adjacent to the libray that would block sunlight from the panels.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

A whooping 0.93% ROI. Who says the government doesn't know how to spend our money more wisely than us. Of course that assumes an infinite lifetime and no maintenance costs.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[W]e are dealing with Liberals. [Other people's m]oney is not important

[PsyOp]

Like the greenies say, every little bit helps. What it helps with isn't exactly clear.

It helps the "greenie" who owned the company that installed the solar panels.

[NicknamedBob]

Let me guess. To make it aesthetically pleasing to behold, they installed the panels on the North side as well as the South side, (if there is a South side).

Now if I had a few tens of thousands to invest without concern, I could get a twenty year return on the investment. But I would put them on the South side of my house.