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I've been looking at electric bikes and the viability of charging one through solar.
This is more of a interesting thing to do as opposed to a lifestyle choice. It would be nice to be able to ride over to the local brewery and have a couple and be able to zip back with no worries. ��
I'm guessing you mean BUI. If so, this article says you can be arrested for that in some states.
Interesting article which makes some good points. I suppose all forms of power generation have their pros and cons from an environmental perspective. Which is the least bad and can we trust government (not just the USA) to defend the public interest with proper environmental safeguards?
Interesting article which makes some good points. I suppose all forms of power generation have their pros and cons from an environmental perspective. Which is the least bad and can we trust government (not just the USA) to defend the public interest with proper environmental safeguards?
I really hope solar increases in efficiency while its costs and environmental impact decreases. Every few years, I price solar again hoping that at some point it's worth the investment for me.
It's like a few years back when Costco started selling LED bulbs at less than half of what they went for elsewhere. I invested in switching every bulb in my house to LED. I have a relatively decent size home (3600) in Texas. My main electrical battle is cooling my house. Put your hand close to an incandescent bulb. They are heaters.i had over a hundred and twenty five little heaters in my home battling my AC. So, not only did most go from 60 watts to 6 watts in consumption, but I also save money on my cooling. It was worth the investment. I also invested in a radiant barrier for my roof.
Trust me, I long for the day when I have a solar array powering my home. I just need it to be a sensible investment.
What we have now is the technology to generate energy from wind and sun and that technology, especially solar, gets better and more efficient every day.
That is what makes these to be viable for many of us
You're right, I never gave money to GreenPeace. I did non-productive things such as organizing environmental seminars on topics like non-point source pollution, protecting wetlands and erosion control while working at a state environmental agency. I take my Cub Scout troop out collecting garbage and planting trees. We watered trees yesterday. I've gone on multiple trash clean ups at local lakes and beaches. I've participated at four underwater clean ups in Austin at Lake Travis. When money was being raised to expand the preserve at Armand Bayou (a sensitive wetlands area near Housto), I donated and went to my employer and got them to match. Following Hurricane Ike, I volunteered to help with clean up at the Jesse Jone Nature Center. That's some of the mostly hands on things I've done.
But no, I have never given money to GreenPeace, you got me.
Well you could have fooled me that you cared.
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So, you'll accept the destruction of marine habitat as a con to desalination but none of the cons of coal?
I'm sorry, where are the plans to implement desalination at a globally scale? What % of our global water supply comes deslaination and what % of global electricity comes from coal?
Let me repeat my statement about the cons of desalinization you replied to but clearly didn't read or understand it:
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Anyways, any solution has pros and cons... Not to mention there are certainly remedies and innovations to make the consequences less severe as this would take many decades to implement. However, it's a moot point without clean and cheap electricity.
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How do you decide which cons to accept? Is it by what's trending on Facebook?
Whatever, it is a big step above however you do..... My comment above should further illustrates simply finding an article in no way shape or form makes you knowledgeable about it in your case.
We seem to be missing the message. The cost of PV solar is now low enough that it pays in many areas at the utility level. That is the total cost of solar PV is less than the variable cost of gas or coal. At that point you implement fully on solar PV.
Rooftop has a different problem. The cost is roughly double that of utility solar PV. But that is driven almost exclusively by the soft other costs...mainly the costs of acquiring customers. And those acquisition costs are increasing and partially offsetting the technology driven cost reductions.
So Rooftop growth will be modulated by the marketing and profits costs...not the hardware costs.
We seem to be missing the message. The cost of PV solar is now low enough that it pays in many areas at the utility level. That is the total cost of solar PV is less than the variable cost of gas or coal. At that point you implement fully on solar PV.
Rooftop has a different problem. The cost is roughly double that of utility solar PV. But that is driven almost exclusively by the soft other costs...mainly the costs of acquiring customers. And those acquisition costs are increasing and partially offsetting the technology driven cost reductions.
So Rooftop growth will be modulated by the marketing and profits costs...not the hardware costs.
I am not sure how exactly you are defining 'rooftop solar' here.
The cost of PV solar has been dropping and is now low enough that it does 'pay' in many regions. The technology is getting better and the hardware costs are dropping. The cost for rooftop solar is reducing, regardless of marketing or industry profits.
I am not sure how exactly you are defining 'rooftop solar' here.
The cost of PV solar has been dropping and is now low enough that it does 'pay' in many regions. The technology is getting better and the hardware costs are dropping. The cost for rooftop solar is reducing, regardless of marketing or industry profits.
I would think you are in the class that has it made in the present environment. Only better situation than yours would be someone living in the sticks on Haleakala.
The mass market however is the sun belt suburban roof top with more than enough sun energy available to make zero cost solar PV feasible. ie a roof top solar array can cost effectively pump as many kwhs into the utility system as it takes out. The cost of such systems late last year was about $3.50 per watt. That is about twice the utility cost of $1.77.
Things like the panels and even much of the electronics are roughly equivalent. So why does roof top cost twice as much? Because the providers are spending about $1.50 for client acquisition and profit. And that cost at the moment is increasing partially offsetting the savings on hardware.
That is where the battle is drawn. In NV it is clear that the utility has every intention of making a vast investment in solar PV. But not on roof tops. And they have prevailed at least temporarily in changing the rate structure to make roof top unworkable. Two recent studies have demonstrated that the study supporting such a rate revision was in fact a cooked book exercise. And a referendum is underway to reverse the decision so we will see.
NV is by the way similar to the Salt River decision in AZ which also blocked further implementation of solar PV in a large part of AZ.
So we have a bare knuckles war between the utilities and the roof top solar guys in the heart land of the best solar terrritory.
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