Posted on 01/11/2023 11:22:09 AM PST by CFW
It “works” because of massive government subsidy.
You can’t power modern civilization with wind and solar.
panels last 25+ years. They are largely minerals and metals that are insoluble in water, ie low toxicity to my knowledge.
Less of an environmental issue than many options.
Your mileage may vary.
Average of 200-218 days of sunshine in Georgia (Figured include partly sunny!)
I’ll bet those panels don’t operate much over 50% of the
days in a year with storms and the winter. I looked it up.
Atlanta has 217 sunny or partly cloudy days.
Partly cloudy really cuts back on solar output. You can
generally write off those days too, to a large extent. If
it totally clears, it won’t be so bad, but a thin layer
is considered partly cloudy, and it really cuts the output.
https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/georgia/atlanta
We’ll see how well those solar panels do under golf ball
sized hail.
Everyone wants to get on board new tech, but it just isn’t
always worth it.
And Solar energy is not renewable. Just more bastardizing of the language. The ONLY renewable energy is wood, burning trees. We can “renew” solar or wind. Actually solar and wind are the opposite of renewable. Coal and gas can be discovered and extracted. With enough proven sources to last the next 100 years. We can’t create more gas anymore than we can solar, but trees, we can replant trees infinitely. Actually there are more trees on this earth everyday, constantly growing and covering the earth’s surface, constantly sucking up CO2 provided freely by the humans. It just all keeps getting better, more CO2 pollution, more food for trees, more O2 for people who burn them up for energy, a wonderful perfect circle of life.
“they ABRUPTLY abandoned the business”
Was there a tax credit that expired?
What kind of tax-breaks and subsidies do they get?
Besides that though, our corrupt, cronyist-woke leaders always choose the top-down approach, vs. the individual, ground-up approach. Solar may be an excellent choice for your home, especially if you are far from a connection, prone to black-outs, etc... In this regard, by promoting grid-level development, they have it exactly upside down - and will cause unnecessary costs and trouble because of it.
Its the typical leftist debate over any human good - transport, medical care, education, energy.
They promote the collectivist, power-grabbing top-down approach over the more efficient and logical individual, bottom-up choice
We looked at all that prior to design and purchase.
Solar is not a panacea, but it DOES go a long way to sheltering us from the rising costs, controls and vulnerability of the commercial grid.
Folks are free to be detractors. WE know it works *as anticipated* for our family home.
To be fair to other FReepers, I 100% agree with them on hating the Dims trying to force solar onto people. It should be a free market thing. And as far as whether or not solar works for someone, it depends upon many variables and my not be worth it for a lot of people.
But if you're in a situation that's good for solar, solar can go a long way to making your family less dependent on the various energy sources that the Dims overregulate and make too costly. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of small-government conservatives get solar in the near future for the reasons I did, especially ones who live in the south (read: get lots of sunshine, even more during the part of the year we use a lot of power to run our A/C).
The ENTIRE “Green New Deal” is a scam!
The storms and even falling branches have not damaged the panels. We don’t see golf ball sized hail in N GA. The panels are covered by insurance just like the shingles are (State Farm).
*MIGHT* have 2 days of snow cover per winter.
WE will exceed our anticipated annual production from solar. Sure it’s not even across the 12 months of the year. Only an idiot would expect it to be. Inclination of the sun, leaf cover, cloud cover at various altitudes, tadda yadda; it’s gonna vary production.
As I wrote before ...
We looked at all that prior to design and purchase.
Solar is not a panacea, but it DOES go a long way to sheltering us from the rising costs, controls and vulnerability of the commercial grid.
We live in the country. We can get by quite well during outages. With some serious adjustments, we could live and operate off grid if there a long term outage.
Folks are free to be detractors. WE know it works *as anticipated* for our family home.
I love how wind and solar systems are allowed to use their theoretical peak production power when it comes to getting free money from the taxpayer. At best that 8.4 GW is 10 to 15% of that. Then add the degradation of the solar cells of a few percent per year. I would love to see the math on the energy required to install this solar plant. BUT HEY. They are saving the planet.
These are wealthy people that did it more as a luxury. Their goal was to not have to worry about whatever the government decides to do with power use rules etc. The wanted to be entirely self powered. Big properties in rural areas.
These are very conservative people.
No. And it went up when Biden got ‘elected.’
The only way these things ever make money is with government subsidies and tax credits. Even the “viable” ones don’t have good returns.
I rent, and I have my own solar cells and electric generators.
I run a good portion of my home off of it.
Still, I think single homes are the type of solar system
that works best. When you set up a massive system, you
face issues you don’t at a single family dwelling.
Saving the electricity for use at times other than when
your solar farm is collecting, becomes an issue.
Transmission of the solar over long distances is an issue.
Dissipation of energy over that long distance.
I support folks developing their own electric system.
As for massive public projects, not so much.
I was thinking of going solar because if everything goes kaput, who’s going to come take them off my roof?
“Partly cloudy really cuts back on solar output. You can
generally write off those days too, to a large extent. “
Some loss but still beneficial.
Yep. Large scale solar benefits the utility - those big fields full of solar panels.
Residential solar is an investment in a level of independence and resilience.
On my poly-crystalline 100 watt panels, a thin layer of
clouds reduces output by about 75%. A shadow on 1/8th of the
screen does about the same thing.
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