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THE TROUBLE WITH SOLAR
Powerline ^ | 02/12/19

Posted on 02/12/2019 1:15:19 PM PST by Liberty7732

The Democrats’ Green New Socialism proposes blanketing the U.S. with solar panels and wind turbines so as to replace all reliable forms of power generation with unreliable, intermittent sources. Everyone knows that solar panels don’t produce electricity at night, but there is another problem: they don’t produce electricity when it snows, either.

A friend took this photo and wrote:

I was up in Ramsey [Minnesota] picking up my camper, and next door is this fantastic $30,000,000 brand-new solar installation.

Doesn’t look like they’re making much electricity today, but it sure is going to make for good union jobs clearing the snow off these things.

(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: berniesanders; bloggers; newyork; ocasiocortez; vermont
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1 posted on 02/12/2019 1:15:19 PM PST by Liberty7732
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To: Liberty7732

But leftists don’t care about the environment any more than they care about the economy. Their sole goal is the power to bully the rest of us. Everything else is a fraud.

yup


2 posted on 02/12/2019 1:26:08 PM PST by samtheman (How can there be so many brain damaged Americans?)
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To: samtheman

A great mathematical analysis of land use issues with “renewables”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0W1ZZYIV8o


3 posted on 02/12/2019 1:28:56 PM PST by samtheman (How can there be so many brain damaged Americans?)
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To: Liberty7732
The last line of the pieces summarizes it quite nicely: But leftists don’t care about the environment any more than they care about the economy. Their sole goal is the power to bully the rest of us. Everything else is a fraud.

Bingo baby, bingo!!

4 posted on 02/12/2019 1:35:38 PM PST by Fungi
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To: Liberty7732

They make solar panels that are heated to prevent snow and ice build-up


5 posted on 02/12/2019 1:40:19 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: Liberty7732

Other thing is they don’t last forever so 30K every 20 years on top of 15K for a roof every 20 at least in Florida. I’d rather my 110 dollar electric bill compared to my neighbors who have panels 45 dollar electric bill. I just don’t think in the long run you save money.


6 posted on 02/12/2019 1:41:12 PM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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To: All
"....it sure is going to make for good union jobs clearing the snow off these things....."

Ain't that the truth. I'm completely off-grid by choice, intent and long planning, and 99% of my electricity comes from solar (an 'investment' that financially I'll never see break even compared to on-grid electricity, despite having designed the system, bought at wholesale and installed everything myself).

But I hate snowy days when I have to get up early and go shovel off the panels.

7 posted on 02/12/2019 1:47:47 PM PST by LegendHasIt
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To: Ben Ficklin
They make solar panels that are heated to prevent snow and ice build-up

So they use electricity from coal or gas electric plants to provide power to heat the solar panels. Wow, what a clever plan. Green people are worst than just insane, they should not even be on the planet.

8 posted on 02/12/2019 1:49:23 PM PST by Logical me
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To: Ben Ficklin

There go, bringing facts to a good ole FR energy bashing thread...


9 posted on 02/12/2019 1:55:39 PM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Liberty7732

On solar, the numbers don’t work.


10 posted on 02/12/2019 1:57:34 PM PST by karnage
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To: Liberty7732

I see two problems with solar energy. The first is the rotation of the Earth. The second is the presence of those pesky collections of water vapor in the sky.

Other than those things, what could go wrong?


11 posted on 02/12/2019 1:58:59 PM PST by nesnah (Liberals - the petulant children of politics)
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To: Logical me
You need to accept the reality that renewable energy is replacing fossil fuel. Every year the price of solar and wind gets cheaper

Solar works fine in places where there is a lot of snow and ice because because snow and ice create a lot of reflected sunlight which increases the solar panel output.

12 posted on 02/12/2019 1:59:13 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: napscoordinator

Other thing is they don’t last forever so 30K every 20 years on top of 15K for a roof every 20 at least in Florida.

________________________________________________________________

Actually you can usually figure on them being at least 85% of their original output at 30 years. They will likely do much better than that if you keep them clean.

I have a few thoughts about solar after living with it for a few years. I’m in Kentucky. The chart says I can figure on about 5 hours a day average, I wish. While there are days when I get a lot more than that, cloudy days don’t produce as much as I was led to believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my solar. I have 12KW on the roof and a whole lot of battery storage, over 3200 Amp Hours at 48V. On a sunny day I send much more electricity than I use back to the grid and they give it back at night with only a small charge, about $12 a month.

I have a heat pump and gas heat. I put a lot on the roof so I could run my heat pump, well without a lot of sunshine I can’t. I can make a dent in my heat pump cost with clouds, a pretty good dent but if I didn’t have the grid I would use more gas or leave the windows open at night in the summer. I could always use a generator and the battery but the battery has a finite life and it is expensive. Not using it will allow it to last virtually forever as long as I care for it.

That’s another thing. You have to care for the battery. I don’t know if it’s an art or science but it took over a year for me to finally figure how to keep it in tip top shape so that it would tide me over for several weeks without power input from other sources including sun.

I never worry about having power, it went off in the neighborhood a couple weeks ago because of an ice storm we didn’t even know about it till a couple days later when a neighbor came over and thought the power must be back on because we had power.

We like what we have, it is expensive. I originally figured 7-8 years to pay for it, I figure now I’ll be lucky if it pays for itself in 10 years. I didn’t get it though for the payback, I’m getting old and wanted to have power if it gets cold. I also didn’t want to lose all the stuff in my 3 freezers full of stuff. I do, and now I have a warm place for the kids to come home to if the world goes to hell in a hand basket.

My recommendation to people considering solar. Get twice as much as you think you will need. I’m seriously considering putting more up. Get it while the government will still pay for a third of it.

Utilities getting into solar is a boondoggle for someone or they wouldn’t be doing it. It’ll take a long time go pay back 30 million, investors don’t want to wait that long.


13 posted on 02/12/2019 2:06:13 PM PST by JAKraig (my religion is at least as good as yours)
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To: bigbob; Liberty7732

There is lots of info about it on the internet, including the Dept of Energy, so I don’t understand why someone would turn to a political website like Powerline to get their facts.


14 posted on 02/12/2019 2:14:56 PM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: Liberty7732

Great article - thanks for posting


15 posted on 02/12/2019 2:19:57 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Liberty7732

If snow blocks the sun, then so do trees, leaves, debris, & dirt. Homeowners with the panels will be tempted to go up on the roof & clean them often. Accidents/deaths will increase.

Homeowners will need to cut their trees that block the sun, increasing the heat of the home in summer & increasing A/C costs; not to mention the loss of the environmental/esthetic benefits trees bring. I thought tree cutting was environmentally unfriendly?


16 posted on 02/12/2019 2:57:32 PM PST by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: Liberty7732

The problem with solar, The components used are manufactured with the help of oil, gas and coal. Its a scam like global warming


17 posted on 02/12/2019 3:13:08 PM PST by ronnie raygun (nic dip.com)
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To: JAKraig

Wow. Thank you for your post. Very informative. Someday I am sure I will have to have solar (Florida might make it mandatory someday), but I printed your post so that I have it ready. In our community, we all have electric....would love gas especially for the stove but the HOA said no when they started building. Anyway, it is nice that you were able to keep your electric on when everyone else went out......good think the neighbors didn’t know or you would have had a lot of company. lol.


18 posted on 02/12/2019 3:51:40 PM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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To: napscoordinator

That sounds in line with what my landlord has told me about solar in our office.

He installed panels because they said he’d break even in 10 years and the panels had a useful life of approximately 20 years. The panels have reduced his electric bill by about 25% but after having them for a few years he now calculates his break even at 30 years. He’s just hoping the panels will last past 20 years, otherwise he’ll never break even.


19 posted on 02/12/2019 3:52:02 PM PST by Dexter Morgan ("MSNBC News? Appalling. Appalling and amateurish. So both at the same time; it's a bad combination.")
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To: Dexter Morgan

Dang. I hope IF they really want us to jump on these solar panels, they improve them. I even hear some of my neighbors say theirs leak sometimes. that would stink for sure.


20 posted on 02/12/2019 4:03:18 PM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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