Posted on 09/01/2020 11:52:50 AM PDT by george76
Most people seem to believe that wind and solar panels produce no waste and have no negative environmental impacts. Unfortunately, these people are wrong.
In reality, everything that humans do has an environmental impact, whether it be mining, using a coal-fired power plant, or even tourism. When it comes to energy and environmental policy, the real question to ask is not “will there be an impact?” but rather, “can the impacts be minimized?” ...
Because everything has an effect on the environment, it is important that everyone understands the impacts of all energy sources so we can make the best possible energy decisions. We are constantly making trade-offs in our lives whether we recognize it or not.
...
Unlike other forms of electricity generation, like nuclear plants or coal plants, there doesn’t seem to be any foresight on how to deal with the waste that will be generated when solar panels and wind turbines reach the end of their short lifetimes. Remember, nuclear plants can run for 80 years, as can coal plants with proper maintenance and upkeep, but even the best wind turbines and solar panels will last for just 25 years, creating staggering amounts of waste products.
...
solar panels are expected to generate 866 times more waste in the next 30 years than nuclear power has generated in the last 50. And unlike nuclear waste, which is safely stored on site, nobody knows what will happen to these solar panels at the end of their useful lifetime because solar panels are not easily recycled.
...
Unfortunately, most people still don’t understand that wind and solar require enormous amounts of metal, and that much of this metal is mined in Third-World countries that have few protections for workers or the environment.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanexperiment.org ...
Yes they are easily recycled. Unfortunately for now, there just aren’t enough old panels to support economically recycling them. The solar boom is less than 10 years old, while panels last 20+ years. Short term problem that the market will correct.
I’m certainly no authority on this but I recall an HVAC system which utilizes the difference between temperature of the earth at a certain depth and just runs water thru piping which is set up in a grid formation buried far enough down to where the temperature is a constant 70 degrees (or so).
The warmed water then goes into the home where a blower distributes the heat from the warmed pipes.
All that is needed is a low power pump and a circulating fan both of which require electricity but the amount needed is minimal compared to conventional heating.
Not true anymore. They pay 3-4 cents for your excess power. Not only that but you were getting 15 cents for your unreliable power whereas they could pay 3-4 cents for reliable power. Since you got a huge subsidy thanks to net metering, it paid for itself, otherwise it would not.
Folks,
Nothing is fully bad or good. For some situations solar and wind are appropriate. The question is what situations.
We have a lot of federal regulations that are one size fits all. And a LOT of the new energy regulations are VERY WRONG.
Someday batteries will be cheap enough to make that argument moot, but that might be a decade or two away.
-PJ
Meteor Crater is quite boring from the ground. I’d be OK with filling that puppy up.
Yes, you got a subsidy from your neighbors. Instead of buying 3 or 4 cent electricity from a reliable provider like a natural gas or coal generator, they utility is forced to buy your unreliable electricity for 12 cents. Then they have to provide you with reliable electricity at night and in the winter and cloudy days when you provide none.
There's a very easy way to tell if rooftop solar is cost-effective: disconnect from the grid. If you pay the same or less, and your house isn't destroyed in a cloudy period in the winter, then solar is cheaper. Otherwise it is more expensive for all of us.
Send it to China...
A grid comprised of up to 30% wind and solar power is very expensive, as it must also have massive investments in partially used back-up for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Add to that cost of waste, and the sheer amount of space these ugly things must use. Its simply not a good future strategy.
Americans will some day realize they’ve been hoodwinked by greens and “renewables” such as wind and solar. And when that happens, energy prices will be through the roof.
There's no debating them. Their intellect is too shallow. They also think backward by starting from the desired outcome, so everything they do is simply "removing an obstacle".
What about Soylent Green?
More like a constant 55 degrees around here (VIrginia) and colder further north. The system needs a heat exchanger to remove the heat from the pipes, and the heat exchanger is more efficient in cold weather than an air-source heat exchanger that most people have. But it's certainly not minimal.
Also the grid of pipes is either very large and pretty deep (10 feet or more) or it is small and very deep (e.g. 100-300 feet) so it can tap into groundwater.
Why is silicon Toxic?
“It’s people!”
Send it back to China
I pay the same sliding scale for electricity that I paid before the panels were installed (except for inflation and rate increases). And I've yet to get a reimbursement from Duke. They only run a tab for months where I produce more than consume and when I start to consume more than produced they reduce the bill until that "credit" is used up. If I had a full year with no "use" they would then send me a check. AND, the amount of my credit is actually backwards to your numbers. My credit might be closer to in the 3 to 5 cent range (if they owed AND sent me money which has yet to happen) while my amount billed goes up if I use more kW. They charge 11.3 cents per kW for the first 1000 then 14.05 for kW over 1000 used.
Since I told you I always have some bill, that means that I cannot disconnect from the grid. My system does not produce enough to allow me to disconnect from the grid. And if I disconnect from the grid, who do you assume I'm going to be paying a bill to?
There are volcanoes going off all the time under the ocean. Just dump all our waste ontop of them and the earth will recycle.
We should send the wastes to China!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.