Posted on 10/11/2024 9:24:25 AM PDT by Tell It Right
The price of solar electricity is further reduced by about another 50 percent by a fleet of federal subsidies. That reduces the cost to $50 per megawatt-hour. The remaining gap between $50 and the $20 worth of gas saved is filled by increased electric rates — a subsidy paid for by electricity customers. A spreadsheet showing these computations can be downloaded here.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
So even if someone was to argue: hey, use solar for the grid during the day to save on coal and natural gas costs of generating electricity during the day, and on nights and rainy days the power company will buy hydrocarbons to run standard power plants. This article says that even with that kind of situation in which the grid power would be dependable, solar for the grid is still not worth it.
One of the ways to make it competitive is to drive the cost up of natural gas. Whether intentional or accidental, this is the goal.
It kills me when Elon Musk says we can power the US with solar that would cover a small corner of TX. He’s obviously not counting manufacturing plants. Every plastic film/bag plant has an electric bill of $50k per month and I’m pretty sure there’s no solar panels putting out 480 volt 3 phase or 440 volt single phase.
That’s just one of hundreds of different types of manufacturing.
Nope, this whole solar thing is going to be for homes only. Musk ain’t gonna be building rockets or Teslas on 100% solar.
One thing solar is good for is in places where power can’t feasibly be run, either due to distance from any utilities or terrain like the Rockies.
In most cases Solar is a big Scam. With that said, I Solar powered my well because it would cost at least $200K to get electricity up my mountain to the well. My system works flawlessly for my well, which is set to only run 2 hours a day MAX from 12-2 in the afternoon, I also ran power to 2 other out buildings for lights..., fed by my Solar setup. It will run a full size fridge forever and lights too, but that is about it except during the day you can do m a lot mor, but you better make sure the batteries are fully charged by sundown, or it will crap out before daybreak.
Magnum 240volt 40Amp Inverter
8, 6 volt 220AMP Hour Golf cart batteries
8 350 watt panels
1 60 amp MPPT charge controller
I too, think solar as it's promoted by the left is hogwash (grid shouldn't depend on solar, nor does it save the planet from warmageddon). Nor should it be forced onto us or subsidized.
And I have solar for my home. I installed a small version 3 years ago, liked it, and upgraded it a year later. It's enough to power my now all-electric home (3 years ago I replaced both of my gas appliances with a variable speed heat pump and heat strips for the home, and a hybrid water heater with a built-in heat pump on the water tank). I also use it to charge our EV for over 1,200 miles per month (home charged miles, not counting charging away from home if we take it on a trip). Over the year it provides 81% of the power we consume, pulling the other 19% from the grid (mostly in the 4 coldest months).
So not enough to be off-grid. But I have enough experience and telemetry data exported from my inverters into a SQL database to study and know how much of each component would need to be upgraded if the Dims keep making energy harder to come by and more expensive (except on election years). I'm also a bit concerned by the fact the Dims are also the party that openly hates Christians ("Christian nationalism") and openly wants to quell decent. While I'm not exactly expecting us to have a mark-of-the-beat type experience here in the U.S. in my lifetime, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dims keep making energy harder and harder to access (or too costly to use) unless you bow to their hedonism gods.
Solar capacity: 20kW
Inverter continuous AC power capacity: 18kW
Battery storage: 92kWh
Subsidy: life support for ideas that would die in the real world.
The shift from "Fossil Fuels" to "Renewables" is underway because of too many voters ignorant of science and/or unwilling to accept that the Government is malicious, and "Experts" are rarely so.
I can't tell you how may arguments I have had with people about the "Global Warming" scam that ended with "well Global Warming is real and there is nothing you can show me that will make me change my mind".
At this point I believe a very large number of Leftists/Democrats know "Renewables" are part of the overall plan meant to establish global authoritarianism.
IMHO, most people, even greenies, know that the global warming thing is a scam. I think they're now to proud to admit that they've been wrong for years, especially about something that they argued very loudly for.
You got a lot of juice there, I lived in my cabin and trailer on top the hill with my solar setup, but had to run the generator a lot to keep up. I could scale my system up, but It just isn’t worth it and would require more of my time to maintain, right now I check the batteries every 4-6 months and add some water. That’s it.
1. Twice per year I get a water hose and long pole brush to clean the solar panels.
2. Twice per year I change a setting on my main inverter on when it powers a separate electrical panel (when my home batteries are charged at least X %). A circuit tied to that panel is the main circuit we use for charging the EV (when there's enough home battery storage to make it through the night without the grid, I'll charge the EV up to 80% even if it's already charged enough for the next day's drive). This means most of the time we charge the EV it's with free power. If the EV's range gets low, we'll plug it into the constantly powered charging circuit (which may or may not be free that day, but the charge is certain).
3. Twice per year I go to my water heater closet and flip two wye levers on the duct work that directs the free cold air coming out of the hybrid water heater. During the warm half of the year I let that free cold air fall to the floor into the air receiver for the HVAC to spread that free cold air throughout the house (so my home variable speed heat pump can run in lower speed to keep the house cool for the couple of hours per day the water heater runs and produces free cold air). In the cool months I push that cold air export up into the attic out of the living quarters while I'm running the heat to keep the house warm.
4. Once per month when I get a power bill, I export data from my inverters into my SQL database and do some number crunching to compare how much my inverters say they pulled from the grid with how much my power statement said I pulled from the grid. I also record the odometer from my EV to see how many free home charged miles we drove that month, and look at the price of gas at local gas stations to see how much gas would have cost. If it's been 5K miles I assume a savings in an oil change. I also calculate the costs that come with an EV (i.e. it's a new car so I have full coverage instead of liability only coverage like I would if we still had a gas crossover). I see how much the power utility is charging me per kWh (including the fuel rider per kWh and 4% state tax) to see how much the solar saved me on my power bill (by reducing how much power I would have pulled from the grid).
If it moves tax it and if it still moves regulate it and if it still moves subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan on how D.C. operates
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.