Posted on 07/06/2019 8:58:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
A transition to renewable energy sources is a likely scenario if the anti-fossil establishment manages to persuade lawmakers to implement their green energy policies.
Given the high probability, and the transitions already happening in some countries, it is high-time for us to inspect the functional and operational efficiency of renewable sources, especially the highly acclaimed solar installations.
The Renewable Craze
The so called “craze” about renewable energy is a myth. The top users of fossil fuels are still actively generating power from fossil fuel and are also helping other countries to develop fossil fuel technology.
The major reasons for this are the high cost associated with installation and generating power, and the unreliable nature of the power generated.
The sun sends out abundant energy, yet solar energy can be generated only during the daytime, and any high-power consuming system must rely on other sources for energy during the night. The current industry-standard storage technologies are not sufficient to provide backup during the non-generational hours.
Even during the daytime, solar energy cannot meet the demands of densely populated cities. Even worse, they consume a lot of space while generating proportionately less energy than fossil fuels or nuclear.
When it comes to real estate, solar energy is the worst. Nuclear and fossil fuel plants generate the same energy by consuming only a fraction of space that solar consumes.
Despite these practically undesirable aspects, many countries have gone forward and implemented solar at a large scale. Here’s a look at some of these instances where a transition to renewables had resulted in a net irreversible loss.
Solar Failure in Australia and India
Australia saw a spike in domestic solar installations during the past five years. Around 20 percent of Australian homes have installed rooftop solar. But, it came with baggage.
There have been increasing reports of solar installation failures and even proven cases of fire hazard to the homes. Nearly 17 percent of rooftop solar systems were declared “substandard,” and around 3 percent of all installations were deemed unsafe.
Melbourne Fire Brigade has acknowledged that there have been at least 25 fires in the Melbourne metropolitan area in the past five years started by problems with rooftop solar.
A laboratory in Canberra that conducts commercial testing for solar panels said that even some of the trusted brands produced panels that were defective and that it is practically impossible to spot the faulty panels when purchasing.
Observers of the renewable energy market in Australia attribute the failures to the import of poor-quality solar products and the lack of laws requiring strict quality standards.
In Asia, India seems to suffer from similar problems with substandard solar panels. At international climate conferences, India—one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide—has been vocal and proud about its ambitious 100-gigawatt solar capacity target for 2022.
Yet, on the ground, solar’s future is not so encouraging. Raj Prabhu from Mercom Capital Group—an observer of the Indian energy market—said, “Poor quality installations if not brought under control will affect all installers in the country as word spreads among consumers about unviable projects and poor-quality installs that may not last long. … the current scenario in the residential rooftop segment is untenable.”
Clearly, solar transitions are not panning out as planned. The drawbacks and problems mentioned here are just about the issues related to installation and safety. The inefficiency of solar panels to produce reliable electricity is one of the biggest drawbacks.
The other rarely addressed drawback is the environmental hazard associated with the disposal of used solar panels, which is proving to be more and more difficult and harmful to the environment because of the large amounts of toxic, rare-earth metals in them.
A transition to solar is a recipe for disaster. Wise individual house owners will stay away from solar installations, given the overwhelming evidence of their inefficiency, excessive cost, hazardous nature, and spurious sales of substandard materials.
A solar panel cannot hurt a bird unless they ram into it at speed.
" Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume from birds that ignite in midair. "LATIMES--- This Mojave Desert solar plant kills 6,000 birds a year. Here's why that won't change any time soonSCIENCEALERT---This Solar Plant Accidentally Incinerates Up to 6,000 Birds a Year
YOUTUBE --- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ICLXQN_lURk
Shall we now address the multitude 'kills'of federally protected birds by wind turbines???
Veejay [*snicker*] lacks knowledge about the technology. And no, PV solar modules will not fry birds. I’ve cleaned active modules with window cleaner many times.
That said, a solar power plant needs to be sized and installed properly with good components. And without a climate with many sun-days, the energy will be more expensive to install and maintain. Such power is great for an experienced installer knowledgeable in safe electrical work but more expensive for most people, who would need to pay for safe commercial installations.
From a poster on the bird kill youtube -—— This type of solar facility is an old technology, that is no longer really being built. Photovoltaic plants (sunlight directly to energy) don’t have the extreme temperature problems that concentrated solar thermal plants do.
Solar panels and the technology has improved tremendously since the initial types 40 or more years ago. Beware of all the misinformation posted on FR about solar.
Well, there were too many of the feathery little noisemakers, anyway! /sarc
Form the second link: “The plant installed a large fence to keep out endangered desert tortoises, but the knock-on effect is that this has made it way easier for coyotes to kill roadrunners.”
It’s about time Coyote got a break. I always felt bad for him, never catching that annoying roadrunner. Poor guy.
Anyway, thank you for the links. My impression of “green” energy is that it is inefficient and deadly to wildlife. I’m the kind of person who chases snakes out of the road so they don’t get squished. Gotta protect the critters!
That bird killing plant was built in 2014, so it is hardly old technology. The YouTube commenter was just plain wrong.
I also recall reading where the photovoltaic cells also cause bird death. Birds mistake them for water and try to land, then the high heat gets them. I’ll have to try to find that reference again.
They left out the one word that explains it: China.
Different technology. Nothing to do with solar panels. It is a solar collector which uses mirrors to reflect sunlight to a tower. And it kills a lot of birds.
Buy a generator.
I have 3 gens for backup.
Heck...
Beware of all the misinformation posted on FR about ANYTHING!
But; most of all...
Beware of all the misinformation posted anywhere on anything!!
The WORST that could happen is their little tootsies get a hot foot!
(But they learn. That’s why you hardly ever find a bird footprint on a black car at midday in the middle of August in the Mojave.)
I’ll take a guess and say that at least one of them automatically fires up at a loss of grid power.
No, I ain’t that fancy. I have to throw switches like you do. Batteries first, then if a couple of overcast days happen, I plug in the gen.
True enough there.
Butt, butt, butt........ Lucky for me I have plenty of grains of salt available. :-) It really boils down to what each one of us accepts as believable or not. I’m a die hard skeptic and I still fall for things on occasion.
“If you call it “green” it can’t be the last inch green, it must be the whole mile green.”
I think the whole wind and solar energy scam should be sent to THE GREEN MILE!
“I just bought a set of lunar panels from a nice Nigerian company. Should be arriving any day now.”
Is the company represented by a nice “Barrister”? Why did you have to buy panels? I thought they would have been awarded to you free along with six million dollars as mine were. I am still waiting for my money and my panels but I only had to forward ten thousand dollars to cover upfront costs. They are also supposed to send me an automatic daylight cover to prevent damage to the lunar panels by sunlight, that costs an additional five hundred. I asked them if they could just deduct the ten thousand five hundred from my six million but banking regulations would not permit that. Oh, well the money should be here soon and I can pay off all three mortgages, including the one for the ten five.
bump
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