Posted on 04/29/2015 1:46:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
If you’ve ever got to teach a kid the meaning of non sequitur, remember this assertion by one Debbie Dooley, Tea Party eccentric and advocate for solar energy:
Support solar energy, because Americans for Prosperity (AFP) says you shouldn’t, and “they refuse to take a position on the fiscal irresponsibility of illegal immigration and amnesty because their corporate benefactors support open borders and amnesty.”
The best I can figure is that Dooley’s actually Andy Kaufman, returned to prank the Tea Party: “Vote solar. Because Mexicans.”
There’s a ballot initiative campaign underway in Florida to get the state to endorse and promote solar energy all the usual ways, and it’s well-financed by interest groups with national ambitions, including friends of billionaire Tom Steyer, so different versions of the fight are popping up from Arizona to Indiana.
It’s likely to pick up more coverage, despite the inherent dullness of energy stories, because it pits Steyer against Charles and David Koch, or at least their respective networks and allies. You might say it represents the moment that the left learned to stop worrying and love dark money instead.
There are two sides to this debate.
On one side are people with some understanding of economics, or at least prices, who know that solar power is still roughly twice as expensive as electricity generated from natural gas, which is the source of 90 percent of the state’s power.
On the other side of the debate are people who’ve noticed that Florida sure is sunny. And some of them, after perhaps a few too many hours in the midday sun, have seized on a plan to convince conservatives that their belief in free markets and competition require them to support the industry’s latest bit of rent-seeking cadgery.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Neil Young has an incredible version of this song but you have to dig to find it.
Best line:
The best I can figure is that Dooley’s actually Andy Kaufman, returned to prank the Tea Party: “Vote solar. Because Mexicans.”
Most important fact:
Gas-fired utilities are cheaper than solar, period. In sunny Dubai, a power company just set a record-low benchmark for solar costs, leading the Washington Post, among other publications, to report erroneously that “photovoltaics will soon be able to out-compete fossil fuels, even if oil prices drop to as low as $10 a barrel.”
This is untrue, because gas is cheaper still by half: $2.67 per MMBtu against $5 per MMBtu set in Dubai. Now, solar tech may well overtake gas one day, but it’s almost impossible to overstate just how cheap and abundant natural gas is right now in this country.
The problem with regular electricity in FL is that the producers have the legislature in their pockets. When I lived in PA we had electricity choice and that kept the rates down with competition. In FL you have no choices. When I moved to FL and Progress energy was bought by Duke, we watched as our electricity rates (already high) went even higher. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism but monopolies aren’t conducive to capitalism.
$300+ a month electric bills may be normal in FL but they were a shock to me. So because I’m cheap, not a GW BS believer, I started to do things to limit our use. I added insulation to our house, changed out the single pane windows and sliders for energy efficient ones. Changed out our lights to LEDs. Then added a solar hot water heater, solar assist cooling and the final part was solar photo voltaic. Our latest March bill was in the low $20s. The government (all of us and our children and grandchildren and the Chinese) gave me 30% tax credits for what I did. Payoff is about 7 years at current rates, shorter if their rates go up (which they inevitably will). Don’t get me wrong, solar alone can’t exist w/o electricity backup but it sure is nice to have a small electric bill.
In the article they have this line ' Solar was up to $5.3 billion, from just $1 billion in 2010, thanks to a popular tax credit that reduces your bill by 30 cents for every dollar spent on solar panels.'
In CA the credit is one time when you install, not ongoing.
My payback is about 6 years from now for my array.
I am in the program where my excess generation makes my meter run backwards (I love that) and the net every month is either added or subtracted from my annual bill.
Last year I had about $140 for the entire year (December is half the years bill).
The panels are warranted for 25 years but technology will out run that I am sure, making my array obsolete about when it is even (cost vs benefit).
No matter, it will still work.
yeah, we have the running backward meter too. They have to put those in for all non-independent installations (independent ones being where you go off grid which puts the electric into storage batteries). We had the solar hot water and solar assist heating/AC since Aug last year and those two really reduced our bills. Went with PV in January - went live 1/10/15 and that further dropped the bills but not as much as I had hoped. But Duke makes a nightmare out of trying to decipher their bills.
The feds gave us the 30 cents/dollar, the state didn’t do anything but FL doesn’t have an income tax. The fed tax credit ends at the end of 2016 from what I understand.
With Duke from what I can tell even if my electric went to zero or even into the negative numbers it appears I’m still paying them for connection fees and meter fees that will require me to send them around $12/month. However, they are required to pay me for excess production. But I haven’t gotten there yet. My solar pusher has promised me he will pay me what I pay Duke for the first year but I suspect he will offer to add an additional array giving me the money he owes me as a discount off purchase price.
I was initially hesitant about buying because I felt (and still feel) that solar is in its infancy and will improve for output and efficiency to the point the solar might end up being incorporated into shingles (read a story a couple years ago on that subject) and their efficiency improved. I think they now only return about between 10% and 20% electricity for the light that hits them?
I just think the government needs to gets its nose out of all the energy production/procurement because I believe they are distorting the market. If they weren’t giving a 30% tax credit on solar I bet the prices would drop by that amount quickly. Anyway, that is my rant! ;-)
If my monthly production is more than my draw then I pay less than $2 for all of Edison's part (lines, production etc.).
We bought our panels outright so the solar pusher is out of the picture.
Our agreement with Edison requires NO batteries. This is fine for now.
I did add an additional array after about two years because the cost went way down (even installed) and my breakers and racks had the room. 4 new panels produce what 7 old produced and they are not much bigger. My issue is with my individual inverters. I need compatibility across the whole array which means I leave some energy on the table, so to speak.
The cost to swap out all of the inverters would be pretty significant compared to the return.
I completely agree on gov't getting out of the way. Everything is better without breath on your neck.
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