Embracing Montana’s Solar Potential

Flathead Beacon, ^ | Jun 30, 2016 | Henry Dykema

[This_far]

To allow Montana’s solar industry to continue growing toward its enormous potential, we need the right policies in place. That’s why I was so glad to see the energy plan recently released by Gov. Steve Bullock.

(cut)

Henry Dykema is president of the nonprofit Montana Renewable Energy Association and owner of Sundance Solar Systems, a solar installation business near Red Lodge.

[This_far]

This is an opinion piece.

The first clip is well into the body of the opinion (that would make it MY opinion of an opinion Mr Motl, neither an endorsement nor a contribution )(Commissioner of Political Practices MT)

Bullock is in second term race, why now is he proposing such, why not before.

Bullock didn't help the coal industry.

I'd ask that you click the link if only to read the comments. (there's only a few, but I believe that they are worth a minute or two)

[Spktyr]

Soooo... how do they propose to have their solar arrays work when they’re under several feet of snow?

[hoosiermama]

Actually the sun works with snow on the ground. The refection from the snow actually intensifies the brightness. That’s why people wear sun glasses when it’s snows

[This_far]

Soooo... how do they propose to have their solar arrays work when they’re under several feet of snow?

Twenty men with picks and shovels, if that don't work, we'll blast.

(Bullocks a lawyer, he'll litigate it till he's termed out)

[Secret Agent Man]

They dont.

[This_far]

Interesting thought.

Wouldn’t the same snow be also on the solar panels?

[hoosiermama]

I have solar. They melt off immediately when the sun comes off
Hoping to add six more panels and I will be completely independent My bill is half of what it was with just the six now. Also on a sunny day make enough to send back to company. Get credit for that.

[This_far]

I’m glad to hear that (that you will be independent).

What do you think it would take to make your neighborhood, township the same?

I’m not being contrarian, just curious. What do you think it would take to convert a percentage of energy users to go solar?

[rellimpank]

--the big solar fiasco just south of Las Vegas (Ivanpah)--somewhat further south --has so far experienced a couple of major problems: "the sun hasn't shone enough " and California is about to penaize it because it uses too much natural gas keeping the fluids warm at night.

--but , us taxpayers got to finance it with a little help from Google----

-last I sawit was produciing less than 50% of expected power---

[This_far]

Isn’t that the one that ‘burned itself up’?

Probably harder to clean dead birds off of the reflectors than snow.

anecdotal: I grew up across the lake from Natick Labs, which had one of the first solar furnaces. A small thing but it made big headlines back in the ... late 50’s.

Think I’ll look up the link and post it.

[Bryanw92]

>>Actually the sun works with snow on the ground. The refection from the snow actually intensifies the brightness. That’s why people wear sun glasses when it’s snows

LOL. You forgot the /sarc tag.

Solar arrays look up. You wear sunglasses when it snows because the sun reflects up off the snow. The reflected sunlight is hitting the bottom of the solar panel. Also, it is true that the sun works when there is snow on the ground, solar panels don’t work so well when the snow is lying on them.

[Bryanw92]

>>I have solar. They melt off immediately when the sun comes off
Hoping to add six more panels and I will be completely independent My bill is half of what it was with just the six now. Also on a sunny day make enough to send back to company. Get credit for that.

Do you live in the upper Rockies? I used to live there and the snow doesn’t melt off until April or May.

When you are independent, will you have a large battery array or capacitor bank for nighttime power?

[oldplayer]

“Henry Dykema is president of the nonprofit Montana Renewable Energy Association and owner of Sundance Solar Systems”

That’s like the CEO of Chevron supporting subsidies for big oil. Apparently the irony escaped the opinion writer of this piece.

[Dad was my hero]

Solar isn't what they'd like it to be. I also have solar. Solar assisted heating/cooling, a solar hot water heater and a photo voltaic (PV) array. And I live in FL. The first two knocked my electric bill down by between 60 - 70% (went live 8/2014). Other things I also did to knock the bill down were, adding insulation to the attic crawl space, changing out the lights to LED, changing windows and sliders to insulated ones and changing out the pool pump to a variable speed pump. The PV - a 5kW system (20 panels) did the least for my bill. PV efficiency degrades every year by some percent and it isn't that efficient to begin with - maybe 20%? I've noticed that with the same weather circumstances to a year ago the panels produce about 2 to 3% less than they did when they were new a year ago (went live 1/2015). I've been told the life expectancy on solar panels is about 25 years.

I bought because the combination had about a 7 year payback (with income tax credits of 30% rebate of price) and it is a big selling point for the house if I decide to get rid of it.

Last month I owed about $30 in electricity costs, the previous two months they owed me about a total of $1.10, I sent them more than I used both months. I've been watching this industry for well over a decade and IMO PV just isn't ready for prime time.

[rellimpank]

—yep—it’s the one that cooks birds—even driving by it yeu get a “dazzle” from it that is just plain unnatural-—

[This_far]

Thanks, it’s kind of my thought also. I’m going for more insulation.

There is an ongoing back and forth here (probably elsewhere) about paying for the transmission lines also.

In the background is the manufacturing of the panels. What are the by products.

The current technology could be as deep as the Hurtgen Forest (for those that remember that)

[This_far]

You just reminded me of another problem concerning airlines. Isn’t/wasn’t that a no fly zone too?

Never read of the transmission line cost/loss.

This all reminds of Terry McAuliffe and Global Crossing.

[This_far]

sorry, live links here

“http://www.boston-online.com/bizarro/the_cockroaches_that_ate_natick.html";

short video

“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tK3s1Vnol0";

[rellimpank]

—IIRC, it is definitely dazzling from the air but don’t know of any particular restrictions—may be a little off the typical glide approaches—

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Henry Dykema is president of the nonprofit Montana Renewable Energy Association and owner of Sundance Solar Systems, a solar installation business near Red Lodge.

So, he owns the business (assume FOR profit) and advocates for solar installations with a non-profit, backed by the (democrat) state government and no one sees just a bit of a conflict of interest? Or, collusion?