Feinstein: Don't Spoil Our Desert With Solar Panels

FoxNews.com ^ | Saturday, March 21, 2009

[Joiseydude]

WASHINGTON -- California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.

Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

[oldbill]

And your arguments are off the mark too.

Nuclear power is not designed for fluctuating loads. It is used to provide the baseline, steady state component of the power loads. Other sources with faster response times (natural gas, petroleum,hydro,coal) address the peak load requirements.

Spend some time near a windfarm and you will see that dead birds and noise are a problem. Ironically, it’s the envirofreaks that are worried about the dead birds. The noise with its low frequency is particularly annoying after long term exposure.

And if you go to most long standing wind farms, like South Point, Hawaii, or Pincher Creek, Alberta in your own Canada prairies you will see half the wind turbines out of commission and rusting in the breeze.

And the wind doesn’t always blow.

[El Gato]

And lets not forget that no one must make any money off the production of that energy.

One of the most important criteria for the watermelon crowd, which includes our White House Resident.

It's also the one that guarantees failure.

[phatus maximus]

The ultimate in hypocracy!!

Typical progressive attitude...I want a mansion with “undocumented” servants and Kobe beef dinners (shhh, don’t tell my PETA friends) and the finest caviar and champagne...

YOU put the solar panels on your roof and yard so I can show how good of a steward of the earth I am....

I am trying to chip away at my liberal friends to point out this but they just keep on coming up with excuses..it’s very sad...

[lainie]

Speaking as someone who has lived in the Mohave Desert for thirteen years, I ask you:

What aesthetics? Has she ever even been here? Solar panels might actually improve the landscape.

[McGavin999]

Windmills are athestically the ugliest thing going. It destroys beauty, that's something the commies love, make everything ugly and destroy the soul.

Just drive through California if you want to see how ugly they are and they really don't contribute much of anything toward power.

You want power, just build nuclear plants. The euros are so far ahead of us on this it's funny. The french get 80% of their power from nuclear.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Maybe this? :

No Nukes: Everyone's Guide to Nuclear Power (Paperback)

[SierraWasp]

“...combined with energy storage technologies...”

Now yer talkin HYDRO-ELECTIC DAMS!!!

[cripplecreek]

The price isn’t terrible but I was thinking more along the lines of a small version of the old style farm windmills. I’m not looking for a great deal of efficiency. Just enough to move water through a garden hose and out a sprinkler head.

[RobbyS]

Environmentalists are searching for magic power. We already have several good and efficient sources available to us, and in enormous quantities. You can’t let people who believe in magic dictate your policies and actions.

Right on the mark. They are as nutty as the peta crowd, totally disconnected from reality.

[BILL_C]

It takes timeframes on the order of weeks to change the output of a nuclear plant

Tell me more. Either you don't have a clue about what you are talking about OR I need to turn in my Senior Reactor Operator's license :-)

Nucs like 100% power from startup to refueling but they can change power fast/easy enough to load follow but there are other issues that make it easier/more economical for fossil and hydro to load follow. Yes we could have all of our generation by nuclear plants but some of the operators would be busy changing power.

[marron]

Thanks for the ping; the article is interesting on its own, and the discussion too.

In terms of the waves, I can’t help but wonder about its effect on temperatures on the various planets. I assume that changes in solar output affect the heating of planets.

[nufsed]

The theme was pro-nuke and anti wind and solar because of the foot prints and low payoff. However, she was optimistic about space solar. She converted to pro-nuke after she researched and found most of the green info was not based upon science, but hysteria.

[Grampa Dave]

I love to see a three way cat fight to the finish between DIFI, Pelosi Galore and Boxer dumb as a box.

[drbuzzard]

I agree that we should be building nuclear plants. But there are issues with those. Nuclear plants are not responsive enough to deal with fluctuating demand. It takes timeframes on the order of weeks to change the output of a nuclear plant. Wind, combined with energy storage technologies can be responsive to this demand. I'm an engineer. I deal with making the peg and the hole fit together. Putting up windmills for the sake of putting up windmills is a square peg, round hole thing. But putting up windmills with a defined storage strategy that makes them fill a niche in the power generation industry is good engineering and makes use of the resources available to us.

I don't know who sold you this nonsense, but they won on the deal. Solar and wind are both extremely temperamental power sources. They cannot guarantee peak performance when you need it, and storage options are extremely limited for any power they do produce. I also don't get where you say that nuclear is not adjustable. If you simply adjust the dampening of the reaction, you can reduce the power output. Remember those control rod things? You know, how they managed the reactors altogether? Even if it were, say, a pebble bed reactor and didn't have control rods, you don't HAVE to push all the heat energy through the generator turbines. You can just dump heat after all. You simply design design the reactor for the peak load you expect and scale down generation from that point down to need.

Waving being an engineer around as if it were a badge of competence doesn't carry any weight with me. I've got plenty of engineering degrees myself, and have known plenty of engineers which couldn't get the round hole square peg issue down right.

[count-your-change]

Please tell me about the “ defined storage strategy” for the output from windmills.

[Mr. Jeeves]

What aesthetics? Has she ever even been here? Solar panels might actually improve the landscape.

I was going to say...you could bulldoze most of Barstow, replace it with a solar farm, and double the influx of tourist dollars. ;)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What!....

I think those stubby joshua trees are cute...

[mad_as_he$$]

CAVEmen

Citizens Against Virtually Everything!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

HYDRO-ELECTIC....Is that something new??? .... :>)

[yazoo]

We have a solution to the energy problem, now all we have to do is figure out how to make things invisible.