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Nuclear will be for today and the foresable future. Things might change, who knows what will be invented, but the capacity of solar and wind just isn't there to supply the world. Not to mention the impacts on migratory birds getting killed by wind farms or dealing with the waste of solar panels at the end of their shelf life.
Why dont we store used solar panels with our used nuclear waste...Since no one seems to think NW is a problem, if we stash the used panels there, the problem evaporates.
LOL Every Kaiser hospital has at least one 1 Cat 3516b 2MW diesel backing up life support systems.....Google earth anyone of them and look for a big white or brown box setting out back......
The Energy Information Administration reported March 12 that power plant operators shut down about 7.9 gigawatts of coal-based generation capacity in 2012.
That represents 2.5 percent of all installed coal capacity at the beginning of 2012, and a sharp increase from the 2.6 GW sidelined in 2011, EIA reported in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.
The agency noted that some of the 2012 closings were offset by the addition of five new coal-based generating units, with a combined capacity of 3.6 GW.
However, the long-term trend is clearly toward more retirements, which averaged only about 1 GW annually from 2006 to 2010, according to EIA.
I guess that would be true if coal was not subsidized, but it is, and therefore your argument is false. Coal industry has a hard time competing with cheap natural gas. It is not a subsidy issue.
Take away the tax dollars Obama is POURING into this very expensive and unreliable form of power, and see how much investment in solar energy falls next year.
According to that logic all energy souces would fall if subsidies were pulled.
NOTE! Non-coventional fuel and renewable energy are NOT the same.
The three largest fossil fuel subsidies were:
Foreign tax credit ($15.3 billion)
Credit for production of non-conventional fuels ($14.1 billion)
Oil and Gas exploration and development expensing ($7.1 billion)
The three largest renewable fuel subsidies were:
Alcohol Credit for Fuel Excise Tax ($11.6 billion)
Renewable Electricity Production Credit ($5.2 billion)
Over 3.3 gigawatts of solar power were installed last year, according to a report Thursday from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. That's enough to power about 500,000 homes, and it was a 76% increase from 2011.
The industry credited the jump to the declining price of solar panels, stable tax incentives and better financing options.
"We've brought more new solar online in 2012 than in the three prior years combined," SEIA head Rhone Resch said in a statement. "And every one of these panels was bolted down by a member of the U.S. workforce."
The industry estimates it now employs 119,000 people in the United States -- a 13% jump over last year. It's expecting another record year for solar installations in 2013.
Here's the rest of the news that CNN forgot to mention.
Quote:
2012 was a historic and busy year for the U.S. solar energy industry. Photovoltaic (PV) installations grew 76% over 2011, to total 3,313 megawatts (MW) in 2012, with an estimated market value of $11.5 billion. Each market segment (residential, non-residential, and utility) showed growth over 2011, while the overall markets in most states expanded as well. Installed prices for PV systems fell 27% during 2012 and at least 13% in each market segment. Nearly 83,000 homes installed solar PV, and cumulative PV installations in the U.S. surpassed 300,000.
Take away the tax dollars Obama is POURING into this very expensive and unreliable form of power, and see how much investment in solar energy falls next year.
As previously said, nuclear can't exist without subsidies either. And other nations are scaling back on nuclear in the wake of the Japanese disaster.
You just have to read what other countries are doing:
Quote:
Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
Reuters) - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.
If anything good came out of those government subsidies, it is the fact that companies figured out how to make solar power/panels cheaper to manufacture, and that will be useful going forward.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wxjay
Solar is still barely 25% efficient.
When people in this country finally look at all of the facts, they will realize that nuclear power is the only viable solution for carbon-free, easy to deliver power en masse.
Solar panels are too expensive to manufacturer, too expensive to install and use too many resources to ever be revolutionary to our electrical infrastructure.
Solar paints are where it's at if you're going to be using the sun for direct power. The paints can be painted on every surface of the structure. They only need to get to the 10% efficiency point for them to make solar panels obsolete.
Currently they're at 1-2% efficiency and gaining ground with almost zero investments in the technology.
Imagine installing enough power for your home to go off the electrical grid (or if you choose to feed excess power back into the grid) one long weekend with a couple of grand worth of paint and maybe a sore back and arms.
Well it's already here and it will be making solar panels obsolete before not too much longer.
Solar panels are too expensive to manufacturer, too expensive to install and use too many resources to ever be revolutionary to our electrical infrastructure.
Solar paints are where it's at if you're going to be using the sun for direct power. The paints can be painted on every surface of the structure. They only need to get to the 10% efficiency point for them to make solar panels obsolete.
Currently they're at 1-2% efficiency and gaining ground with almost zero investments in the technology.
Imagine installing enough power for your home to go off the electrical grid (or if you choose to feed excess power back into the grid) one long weekend with a couple of grand worth of paint and maybe a sore back and arms.
Well it's already here and it will be making solar panels obsolete before not too much longer.
Do you have links? I would be interested in reading more
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